Blind Kids

I just came back from an end-of-year celebration that my wife's scout troop held. Its a very small troop, which means they get to hold their celebrations in very small places. This was in a local business that sells tea and pastries. The pastries were good, if a bit more refined than I like. The tea was - - different. But what I found myself thinking about was blind kids.

One of the kids in the troop is blind -- or , just about nearly. I think she can see, a little, but I know she's legally blind. She's a nice enough kid now. Two or three years ago, it was not uncommon to go to my daughters school and hear this kid screaming loudly because things were not going her way. She would frequently have to spend time in a timeout chair in the hall, and since she was blind, they usually had a teacher with her. But now she's pretty much over it. She does wheedle a fair amount, though, when she wants her mother to do something. All kids do, but most stop after a couple of minutes. She doesn't - she'll go on for five or ten minutes at a throw. As a result ( I assume) her mother cuts her no slack. Part of that, I think, is 'being a mother' -- I know that I'll cut my daughter slack more often than my wife will. But I wonder if some of it might not be because the kid wheedles, and her mother has adopted the attitude that if she cuts the kid a break, its going to somehow get magnified -- that the kid will get the feeling that of course she's due this break, because, you know, she's blind. So the mother just doesn't even start.

I don't know, and I didn't ask. But I wondered.