Respond to Deaf Tea Time: Love vs. Deaf Gene
2 04 2007
ASL video clip - Approx 2:50 Minutes Long
Grant Laird Jr responded to Deaf Tea Time regarding "Love vs. Deaf Gene" — shared his thought when Grant and his wife had two beauitful daughters more than 15 years ago.
To read Deaf Tea Time videoclip about - Love vs. Deaf Gene: and Love vs. Deaf Gene II
Grant W Laird Jr.
http://blog.grantlairdjr.com
Sorry , you did not try hard for a boy (smile).
I’m deaf since birth from waardenburg’s Syndrome and I had a 50 % chance of having deaf children but I was happy to have two hearing boys. Three of my deaf husband’s four sons from his previous marriage are deaf and third of four generations.
Please ignored Lisa’s comment because if you try to have another child. It might be a girl. My brother tried 4 times and all of them are girls. I had one child - a boy. I appreciate your short vlog. I tried Love vs. Deaf Gene II and it was too long for me. I missed some of her vlog. I guess I have a short span of attention.
Children are the Almighty’s gift to the world. They come in packages with all features and parts unknown until after they have arrived. The excitement of kids is their surprise nature–we don’t know who are these tiny people and have to get to know them from scratch. Hoping for family features to appear, such as Dad’s eyes or Mom’s looks or deaf or hearing, is unrealistic, nice if they are there, but not important in themselves. Just appreciate each little package for the surprises they bring.
I have three children, two hearing, one deaf. Two girls, one boy. The girls look like me, the boy looks like his great-grandfather but has hair and freckles like his dad. None of them have the personalities of their parents. No two behaved alike growing up and each presented their own gifts and problems unlike each other.
Having both deaf and hearing, it can be said there is no difference in the family either way. It comes together in accepting each as unique and loved.
Sorry it took me so long to respond. I was so busy yesterday and didn’t read deafread. Yeah. Your family appears to be “mixed.” You do have hearing in your family. My friend Jane did not. She is 5th generation and befoe birth of her middle girl, there was NO hearing in her family. Zip. Nada. Zero. She is oldest of 8 and all 8 are deaf. Several are half siblings. I even met her great grandmother who was deaf years ago. She has 4 deaf uncles who all had deaf children. Her father has total 12 grandchildren and 10 of them deaf, except two which of course are Jane’s two girls. So, coming from this kind of generational deaf family, Jane’s two hearing girls were “aliens” or “muggles.” Jane had NO concept of the real hearing world. She grew up in deaf family, went to residential deaf school. She lived in a deaf world cocoon until births of her hearing girls. It was a scary time for her back then but like you said, one does adjust sooner or later! Now she is looking forward to meeting her deaf granddaughter in September. 6th generation. I know her family well - I grew up with them, so I can see the difference between hers and mine which is not generational deaf family. Big difference.
I agree with you on the deaf genes. It doesn’t matter as a matter of fact I am not a father but I have seen many families with hearing or deaf kids. If they have deaf kids, great and no pblm to communicate. It can be difficult if they find a good deaf school for them. For hearing kids, school are no pblm since they can be sent locally. For communications, they are raised up to learn and pick up ASL from parents. Actually I dont care which deaf or hearing kid to have and raise.