The Problem Is NOT Always My Faulty Hearing

I have a hearing disability. I've lost about 30% of my hearing, meaning that about 3 out of every 10 words are garbled. I hear the sounds, but can't make sense of the word. It's worse in high frequencies, so women will often find that hearing impaired people may fail to pay attention to what they say (so, ladies, you really ARE being tuned out - what you say comes in at such a high pitch, it is near impossible to understand what you say. Worse, when you become upset about not being paid attention to, the stress will cause your pitch to raise - making it even likelier that you will be ignored. The solution? Lower your voice, and talk about 1/3 slower).

Today, I snapped at my son-in-law. We had been looking for the remote controller, and, in the process, I noticed that an exercise band was caught under the futon leg. I tried to move the futon, but was having difficulty. I asked for assistance.

Unfortunately, my son-in-law decided that I hadn't heard that the controller had been found. He replied to my requests for assistance by repeating, "Mom, I got it", over and over again. When I said, "that's not the problem", he ignored what I said, and just got louder.

I really hate that. Too often, people assume that the problem is that I didn't hear them. Instead, other issues arise:

• I'm busy with something else


• I'm ignoring them - sometimes this goes with the above


• I'm not aware that they are talking to me - this occurs often when someone is not facing me while they are talking