It is not often when I have to remind Aric of his hearing loss because he has become quite dependent on his hearing aid and generally does rather well with it. Now since the surgery though, he has not been able to wear it and depends quite heavily on me interpreting or reading the other persons lips. He in turn has gotten quite frustrated with others from time to time.Why the frustration? You see most people assume because Aric has great speech skills that he has "normal" hearing. So when Aric says "huh", "what", "I didn't hear you" etc. that he just was not paying attention not there may be another underlying issue. For example, We were out shopping yesterday and I told Aric lets use the restroom before we head back since it was going to be rush hour here in Dallas. You all know murphy's law that all children have to go potty at the most inconvenient times. Anywho, Aric ran up to the sales lady in front and asked the woman for the key. He asked her, "May I use the key for the restroom?" she replied, "Yes, you may" but didn't move to get the key. He repeated himself again and she replied again but still didn't move. He tells her," I'm sorry but I don't hear very well and I think you said yes." she laughed and replied," yes , I did" yet still continued on folding shirts. Now I am closer to him and simply say, " We would like to use your restroom" the lady replies the key is on the counter there" as she points. I told her " I understand that you were probably waiting for a parent to be present due to a store rule but it would have been better for you to tell him that than to confuse him." she of course looked at me as if I was crazy. Needless, to say I could have been cray cray cuz truthfully I wanted to be but I have worked places where they do not allow only the child into the restroom due to the unfortunate misbehavior of others. She of course once we checked out finally realized when he said that he couldn't hear that he was not being patronizing due to the fact that him and I were talking and I was sign assisting. She then apologized to me and I told her that she didn't need to apologize to me but to him. Unfortunately, she didn't as she was an older lady and felt that she was above apologizing to a child.
These incidents in my life, I know God uses as not only teaching tools for me to help Aric because he will experience this all his life. I say this not for people to pity him but to understand that having an invisible "disability" is worse than having a visible one at times. I have to therefore watch my demeanor and how I reply, so aric learns the correct way to deal with people. Truthfully, the mom in me wants to get in the womans face and berate her for being so inconsiderate and rude etc. If I do that, than who does that benefit? I choose to believe that it also becomes a learning incident for myself as well as onlookers.
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