[blparent] Older Kids and Interaction with the Public

[Julie J.]

This is a tough one.  I think it depends on the kid.  Some kids will get a 
distorted sense of what it means to be helpful and others won't.  I got some 
of this with my son when he was really little, like in the 3 to 5 year old 
range.  I handled it pretty much as you did.  I didn't want to make a giant 
deal about it and draw more attention to the situation.  I also wanted him 
to learn that the world is full of all kinds of different people and we have 
to learn to conduct ourselves appropriate to the situation.  Like you, I 
felt I needed to ensure that my kiddo was raised to be responsible and 
respectful.  That was my priority, not educating the public on how blind 
people can parent.  If some blindness thing happened in public, I would 
handle it the best that I could at the moment and then talk to him more in 
depth about it later, if I felt we needed to address it more fully.

Honestly, what you are doing sounds extremely similar to how I handled 
things.  I think you're doing fine and I think it's entirely normal to think 
carefully about how we parent.  I think it's a sign of good parenting when 
you think very deliberately about how you want to be as a parent.

Julie