Modern Mom: Hear No Evil

Here’s why I like kids better than adults. My 3-year-old daughter was recently diagnosed with a hearing loss for which she needs hearing aids. When we were first told, I was sad, angry, and worried. But after a few days of letting it sink in, I became completely excited that there was a way to help her hear better. I couldn’t wait for the aids to arrive and for my daughter to begin wearing them. Virtually all of the adults I told had the same initial reaction as I. They thought they ought to console, and I had to explain that we were actually feeling very enthusiastic about it. But I did worry about how the kids in her preschool class would react. I bought some books on hearing aides and asked the teachers to read them to the class ahead of time so they might be more sympathetic. I prepared my daughter as best I could for different reactions she might experience from her friends, particularly from those who had never seen hearing aids before. I left her hair down instead of pulling it back in a ponytail as I normally do. As it turns out, I underestimated this preschool class. When I called the teachers mid-day to see how things were going, they told me that my the whole class was fascinated by my daughter’s new accessories. A couple of the kids in the class even tried to put things in their own ears so they could be like my daughter. I had forgotten how accepting young children usually are. Guess I’ve been spending too much time with grown ups.