Daughter began wearing hearing aids a few years ago. The improvement in her hearing has been amazing! In late June or early July, she lost an ear mold. So she didn't have to wear her hearing aids for the rest of the summer.
At the doctor's office a few weeks ago, Daughter gasped when she heard me say she was getting new hearing aids. She apparently thought she was through with hearing aids forever. Oh dear.
She went through the hearing check, the doctor made new molds for her ears, and today we went and picked them up. While the assistant and I were fitting the molds in her ears and measuring the fit, Daughter was being a real pill. She put her hands over her ears, she made grumpy noises when we touched her ears, and she would angrily flip her hair back around her face when we moved it to put the hearing aids in. When the assistant tried to talk to her, she glowered and pouted.
Annoyance #1: I said to Daughter, stop being rude. The assistant says, "Oh, It's OK, she can be rude to me." I give her a look and said, "Would it be OK if your 16-year-old daughter was rude to someone?" She said, "Oh. No."
So I took my snotty, rude daughter out of the hearing aid office. She complained about it being too loud, but the audiologist assured me it wasn't. When the assistant asked, "Are they uncomfortable?" (Objection. Leading the witness) Daughter nodded her head pathetically. I rolled my eyes and said, I'm sure she just needs to get used to them again.
WHY DOES THE WORLD THINK THAT KIDS WITH DOWN SYNDROME ARE INCAPABLE OF MANIPULATION?
I call Husband in the car, and we both tell Daughter the importance of wearing her hearing aids all day. I get off the phone with Husband and she starts sobbing. Random person off the street would say, "Oh, look at that poor girl! Her mother must be abusing her by making her wear those painfully loud hearing aids!"
I say, "She's a normal teenager girl who has to wear hearing aids. She's like a teenage girl who just got a bad haircut. DO NOT ENCOURAGE HER MANIPULATION."
Annoyance #2: Written in Daughter's planner from school today "[Daughter] took off her aids, she said they were bothering her. I am sure not wearing to wearing them will take some time getting used to. She wore them about 2 hr total. She said the [sic] were to [sic] loud." [Smiley Face] ***
Well, Daughter, you won this round. I am irrationally upset about the whole situation. I am frustrated that she took them out after Husband and I told her to wear them all day. I am frustrated by the effectiveness of her teenage manipulation. I am frustrated because OF COURSE I don't want to traumatize her by making her wear hearing aids but they make such a significant difference in her hearing, speech and singing that she really DOES need to use them! I am most frustrated because IT IS VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO CONVINCE HER THAT SHE DOESN'T HEAR, SPEAK, OR SING WELL WITHOUT THEM! She lacks the awareness to understand it!
There is no way to reason with Daughter. She does not believe there is any reason to wear them. So the only way she will wear them is by A) constant nagging, B) bribes, C) threat of punishment or D) she won't wear them.
Sigh. In this situation, we're all losers.
***I am not mad at the teacher. Based on the limited information she had, she made a good decision.
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