What is next???

Jan.21/26

​

Anyone that has had experience raising children with any kind of handicap will tell you that at best, it can be a very heartbreaking experience. For many of us, it is a lifelong battle to try to understand and be compassionate without being overbearing and stifling.  Raising our two deaf boys had its challenges but whether it is our age or the times we are living in, the challenges seem to be overwhelming now with the extended family. Children born into and brought up with non-hearing parents have a whole different set of problems for which many of us were not prepared. What as grandparents could we have done even if we did see a problem in our future? 

Nothing!  -- The combination of children growing up with parents that were frightened of the system, taking their children away from them with the threat from the children or others that they were being abused and the false thinking from a past of uncertainty in the system all put together has caused in some of the minds of our grandchildren a cautiousness that has held them back from a more rewarding life. Can this be true? Or is this just my interpretation of a non-problem?  This has been very hard on the writer, as I have come from a rather disturbed childhood in many ways and only because of my ambition to please my mother that I was better than she gave me credit for, have I succeeded well beyond my expectations for myself and want to see the same for my family (grandsons).  Unfortunately, no amount of stimulation seems to make them want to depart from their level of boredom to enter the world around them.  I feel the desire to just pull the plug and stop putting myself through the agony of expecting normal actions from them.  It is unfortunate that one person can create so much stress for so many. Many times, it can be only one member that can cause much grief for the whole family unit. In most cases it is a matter of being patient while these individuals reach maturity.

Both my brothers held a deep resentment against me that I was not aware of until I was too old to anything about it.  I am supposing they thought I was more successful financially, and in my life style than they were. I take this position as it is the only reason I can come up with that would justify their total distain for me. Undeserved I must say, but a fact of life that I have come to accept.

I am now in my 90th year and do not expect to experience much more of this life’s perils.  However, even though all my old friends from a better life are gone and I, so lucky to have the one most treasured blessing given to me at a very early age, my treasured wife Joan, still at my side to prod me and scold me. What a lucky man am I. 

Paul D. Scott                             rantingsandraves .com