{"id":5942,"date":"2013-05-08T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wheelchairmommy.com\/?p=5942"},"modified":"2013-05-13T10:50:42","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T15:50:42","slug":"piece-of-advice-for-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.wheelchairmommy.com\/closed\/2013\/piece-of-advice-for-others\/","title":{"rendered":"piece of advice for others"},"content":{"rendered":"

disclaimer: <\/span><\/p>\n

It was mentioned to me by several NON parent readers (not a single parent brought it to my attention) that it is NEVER safe for a child to approach and adult alone, so I would like to add that you should make sure you stay with your 4 year old at all times, even your 8 and 9 year olds. It also goes without saying that YOU as the parent should still be your best judge when evaluating the situation. I believe that MOST people will have no issues talking with your child, but there are some who have no desire to speak with you.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I have a dozen directions I want to go with this one today.<\/p>\n

I want to talk about blogging and give my one piece of advice about that.<\/p>\n

I thought about giving advice about pictures and how I important I feel they are.<\/p>\n

I almost cheated and just said “sunscreen”, but that would have been too easy.<\/p>\n

Something happened today that has never happened before, so while I was showering it occurred to me what I needed this post to be about.<\/p>\n

\"what<\/p>\n

This isn’t an unusual occurrence, in fact, it happens regularly.<\/p>\n

I’m happy to report that IN GENERAL, parents cautiously let their kids approach me and ask me questions. I think the fact that I usually have 3 kids hanging off me helps the situation.<\/p>\n

On the rare occasion I see the fear and shame in a parents eyes as they are just a little too slow and their kid reaches me before they can stop them, but they quickly relax when I smile and happily answer whatever their child wants to ask.<\/p>\n

Today was different. I took our boys to Tae Kwon Do and there was a woman I had never seen. The child with her may or may not have been familiar. I really can’t be sure. He was maybe 5.<\/p>\n

He walked right up to me and without any hesitation, asked “Why are you sitting in that?”<\/p>\n

I gave him my standard reply, “My legs don’t work anymore.”<\/p>\n

He trotted off happily. That was enough for him. It usually is, especially at that age.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I’m taken a little by surprise and the child will ask many questions and that’s okay too. Their genuine desire to know WHY is something I wish everyone had.<\/p>\n

Anyways, his mom (or grandma?) came up after he trotted off and with a look of utter shame in her eyes said “Oh my god! I can not BELIEVE he just asked you that!!!”<\/p>\n

I immediately asked “WHY?” and without waiting for her to respond, and in a very frustrated tone, told her that I LOVED childhood curiosity and no parent should ever be ashamed or apologize for their child wanting to know how or why something was. Children learn by asking questions when they see something new and they will never learn to accept new things if they don’t question them and learn about them.<\/p>\n

So that this is my piece of advice to you: Let your children POLITELY ask questions when they see someone different. Polite is relative so relax. If your child is genuinely sincere, tone doesn’t matter much, most people understand that kids may not always have proper tone and what may seem rude coming from and adult doesn’t coming from a child. Please, don’t be afraid. Most people welcome the questions, especially when they come from a child eager to learn everything they can about the world around them and all the different people in it.<\/p>\n


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disclaimer: It was mentioned to me by several NON parent readers (not a single parent brought it to my attention) that it is NEVER safe for a child to approach and adult alone, so I would like to add that you should make sure you stay with your 4 year old at all times, even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,147],"tags":[101],"class_list":{"0":"post-5942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-featured","7":"category-wheelchair-stuff","8":"tag-why-are-you-in-a-wheelchair","9":"entry","10":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5zEve-1xQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wheelchairmommy.com\/closed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wheelchairmommy.com\/closed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wheelchairmommy.com\/closed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wheelchairmommy.com\/closed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wheelchairmommy.com\/closed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.wheelchairmommy.com\/closed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wheelchairmommy.com\/closed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wheelchairmommy.com\/closed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wheelchairmommy.com\/closed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}