[dghughes]

My mother as a teenager listened to her transistor radio all the time, it was a new thing when she was young. She held it up to her ear and it was turned up very loud now she suffers from fairly profound hearing loss but only in a specific high range she can hear low bass normally.

If you talk to her and then turn on a tap to get a glass of water the conversation over, the fridge motor comes on conversation over, any non-verbal sounds is noise that obscures all words to her. "What?" is the response to nearly every word from anyone mouth has to be repeated twice except in a dead silent room. She listens to the TV on level 20 and it's very draining to everyone around the person.

But she won't get a hearing aid! She's 70 years-old but refuses to even discuss it. It's odd how if you say to a person who can't see they may need glasses it's OK but if you say to a person hard of hearing the may need a hearing aid it's like you said the most obnoxious thing ever to say to anyone.

[codezero]

I bet you'd find a lot of older people also unwilling to get new glasses or a stronger prescription. All the same, the taboo likely exists because it's common for young people to have myopia, but not poor hearing, so it's always OK to have glasses and never OK to need hearing augmentation.

I really hope this taboo goes away as new generations get more and more comfortable with augmenting their senses.

[72deluxe]

"very draining to everyone" hahaha that's made me chuckle. Thanks! I think you're right about "it's like you said the most obnoxious thing ever" hahaha

Is there a way of highlighting how often she says "what?" like a tally chart? I would try that with my mum to get a message across. She'd likely be deeply offended, but I think the message would get across.

[dghughes]

I would have to ask my dad but I know when I am there I swear it's every time I say something except in an incredibly quiet room so tracking isn't necessary since it always occurs from my perspective.

It's probably partly due to hearing loss and also just habit because I know I will say something like "Are you going to go for your walk now or later?" she says "What?" and I repeat "Are you go.." and she interrupts as if she knew all along what I had said ugh! Although context helps many situations.

I also find she mistakenly interrupts current conversations between people if they are discussing something she interrupts the conversation with a new conversation since she can't hear. She also has a hard time with conversation flow as if on a phone conference call when everyone interrupts each other due to not being able to follow the flow of the conversation.