As many of you know, my father suffers from pronounced hearing loss. He has a very hard time in restaurants, at parties, and sometimes it can even be a challenge to have a face-to-face conversation with him. If there is any background noise at all it next to impossible for him to hear well despite the state-of-the-art hearing aids he wears. Because he tries with the hearing aids, with lip reading and now with texting I cut him a lot of slack and have learned to speak loudly when I am with him. Frustrating as it maybe be at times.
Zoe, on the other hand, suffers from a completely different kind of deafness for which I have zero tolerance. When the TV is on I can literally stand right in front of her and speak to her and she will have no idea that I've said a word. For example:
[I walk in front of Zoe and stand between her and the TV]
Me: Zoe! You need to go brush your teeth.
Zoe: [blank stare]
Me (again): Zoe! Did you hear me? You need to go brush your teeth.
Zoe: [blank stare]
Me: Zoe!?! Zoe! Teeth! Now!
Zoe: [blank stare] OK. [pause as I walk away] Wait, what?
Me: #$@&*"^$!($ Brush your teeth!
It's a real comedy routine.
I yell at her for it, I punish her, I turn off the TV, but the problem seems only to get worse. I'd blame the TV, but it seems to happen at other times too. Like when she's outside playing and I want her to come in for dinner or when it is time to feed the dog or one of her other 2 second "chores."
Perhaps I need to take her to an audiologist? It's that or a therapist for me!
1 comment:
I know it's annoying now (and having witnessed it, I can sympathize), but just think how well this trait will serve her, sometime in the future when she is sitting in mindless meetings in which the same issues that were discussed in the last 3 meetings and for which no one really seems to care about a workable solution are discussed.
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