I am so proud of my parents and the challenges they have conquered as deaf individuals. People are always shocked to hear that both my parents are deaf and this is followed by a million questions on my childhood and how I coped. They usually feel super awkward to ask questions but honestly, I love the questions because I can appreciate people being curious rather than ignorant and rude.
So I thought to write a few fun facts on my experience of having deaf parents (emphasis on MY as it is not the same for everyone- just like living in London is a different experience for all). I am keeping it as light-hearted as possible, let's be honest, no one wants to hear of the struggles.
Things you know to be true when you have deaf parents:
(1) When someone hears that you have deaf parents, the first thing they ask 90% of the time is how to sign swear words. Funnily enough, my parents didn't actually spend time teaching me how to swear.
(2) You knew two or three languages before you even hit school age- my fun fact every time we do those weird ice breakers *flips hair*.
(3) It is NOT quiet at home at all. They don't know how loud they are- I can be having a normal conversation with my mum next to me but her voice is loud enough for people across the road to hear.
(4) You bitch about other people in sign language.
(5) You feel like a proud parent when they do something themselves that you normally assist with.
(6) You often want to throttle people when they say you can't speak on the phone on behalf of your parents. 'Oh you want to speak to my mum... yeh sure... have fun understanding her'. Younger me used to get frustrated and figure an alternative. A 'little worn by life' me decides to put my mum on the phone anyway and make the person feel super awkward as they have no idea what my mum is saying (my mum thinks it is funny too).
(7) When companies ask for consent from the parents to allow us to speak on their behalf. You do know that we write those letters and emails too (because their English isn't that great).
(8) People on the phone also say 'Omg I am so sorry'. They are deaf not dead...
(9) When people flail their hands at you and ask is this sign language.. like seriously? I might as well burp at someone and see if they can translate.
(10) Children of deaf parents can be excellent liars. When your parents say something that you are too embarrassed to communicate or someone else says something that will anger your parents, translating something completely different is our ticket out of creating a huge mess.
(11) Builders/Gardeners/Electricians will try and con you with costs or quality of work as the adults are 'disabled' and a 10 years old kid is doing the communicating. Nooope, let me show you how things go down... I may be an overly nice person, but when someone tries to con my parents, hell is unleashed.
(12) You were capable of overseeing a house move, making a claim on the car insurance, setting up the phone and utility bills waaay before you were even a teenager.
(13) You sometimes use 'I need to do stuff for my parents' as a ticket to get out of plans. Sorry not sorry.
(14) Your parents make deaf friends anywhere in the world. Despite the sign languages being different- this goes on to my next point...
(15) Yes- different countries have different sign languages. There is around 300 different sign languages according to the last article I read.
(16) There is a mahoosive difference between the amount of responsibilities the eldest child has and the other children...
(18) It is so stressful when your parents are calling you and you are in the bathroom (probably mid-poop). They can't hear you respond and they are gonna think you are a little shit (pardon the pun haha) for ignoring them.
(19) You learn to be creative in getting their attention- turning the hallway lights on and off (if they are on a different floor to you), screaming at a certain pitch that you know they can hear, flailing your arms around, asking your sibling to go get them and hoping they won't try and take revenge at this moment. Anything besides having to actually go up to them and tap them to get their attention.
(20) Finding that getting their attention is even harder now that their eyes are glued to their smart phones.
(21) Constantly hearing the Skype/FaceTime ring tone as they sign to their friends 24/7. Yay for technology in allowing you to communicate but OMG is that shit annoying.
(22) Technology has made life sooo much easier. It used to suck when on a school trip all your friends can call their parents but you were stuck only being able to text in broken English. Now FaceTime has helped communicating so much. But it also means your parents decide to FaceTime unnecessarily too- on the bus, at Tesco's, on the streets.
(23) It drives you insane that there are so many people in your parents life who cannot use sign language.
(24) If you can sign well, all the other deaf parents love you. Once again, sorry not sorry.
(25) Deaf culture has defined you as a person much more than anything else (including being an Indian). People always say that Gujarati/Hindi is my mother tongue, but actually it is sign language.
No comments:
Post a Comment