Kids and blind parents August 18 2020

As school is starting, I was remembering my parenting experiences being a low vision parent. Below are some situations that I found myself in.

Kids And Blind Parents
Parents have challenges raising children. The children are always testing the limits of family rules. The child see what they can get away with and what the parent will tolerate .
But with a blind parent, the ability to monitor and control is limited. For example, You go to a gathering with your child. They decide to visit a friend. You find that you have been parked facing a corner and you are talking to a wall.
Or you and your daughter go into a bathroom and your daughter pushes you into a stall and quickly goes into another because she needs to void . You are left to investigate to see if there is a clean seat. To check if there is paper left on the seat and to check if the commode is clean. Also to check if the lock works. When I finally exit the stall my daughter is impatient to leave. “What took you so long?” She asks .
Another time we were going to use a restroom in a National park. The room was very busy and my daughter spotted a partially open door on a stall. She pushed me in and went to use another stall. I hung up my cane and proceeded to use the commode. I heard a Mother outside my stall calling a little girl’s name. I also could hear a quiet voice from my left. I thought she has locked herself in the stall next to me. I will have to inform the Mom where her daughter is. When I opened the door. I started to talk to the woman and my daughter grabbed me and rushed me out of the restroom without washing our hands. When we had traveled to the far side of the building my daughter finally told me that the small child was in my stall with me. She was playing with the flushing lever so was between the back of commode and the wall. I never thought that she was in the stall with me. I am sure that I would have gotten a lecture from the Mom but she was temporarily stopped by the white cane. My daughter was sure she would find us and press charges.
My daughter and I were in an amusement park and had to find a restroom. Like most busy places, the restroom had a line of women waiting for a stall. There was no line at the handicapped stall so my daughter opened it and went to wait in line for another stall. When I was finished I opened and was surprised to find a women in a wheelchair so close to the door that I was not able to leave the stall. She started to lambaste me that I was not allowed to use this stall. I started to hit her wheel chair with my cane and asked her to back up so I could exit. My daughter later told me that all the women were amused to see this battle of the disabilities being played out in front of them.
I have a blind friend that related a story about grocery shopping with her visual son . She would tell what was on the list and she expected him to find the item and put it in the basket.
When she was at the checkout line she was surprised at the amount of her groceries. After thinking she handed a list to the check out clerk. and asked her to remove any items that were not on the list.
There were Pop-tarts, candy and two little cars. After that she felt each item as her sun put it into the basket.
Kids test all parents but blind parents have to be creative in their response to testing situations.

Parenting
On your toes
where your children go
keep a hold.