People always ask me, “How did you come up with your blog title, A Deaf Mom Shares Her World?
I remember that day well. I had the insane idea that I could make millions of dollars off my blog and move to an island, where I could continue to pound out entertaining posts while my kids frolicked in the ocean. I didn’t give the title much thought. Hmmm, I’m a deaf mom and I want to share my world with my readers… Poof! “A Deaf Mom Shares Her World” was born.
I haven’t made a million dollars (yet!), but Google sends me a check every now and then– which I proceed to splurge on outlandish things, like clothes for the kids.
I had a short brush with fame when a local fast food restaurant refused to serve me in the drive-thru because I couldn’t follow their required protocol of ordering through the speaker. (Hello, I’m deaf!) I went home and blogged about the experience and landed on the news. Never mind the fact that I’ve been in the news for my advocacy work, people instead remember me as the gal who got the drive-thru window shut in her face.
When I discovered Twitter, the kids lost their mom. “Hold on, people, I’ll make dinner in a few minutes. Just let me get this last Tweet in!” Something good came out of my Twitter addiction: the kids learned to turn the knobs on the stove. Just the other day, the oldest threw Greek chicken kabobs, fresh corn and sliced sweet potatoes on the grill while I was glued to the computer. In my defense, I was actually working at the time. I’m a Sales Manager for ZVRS.com, the fabulous videophone company that enables me to talk on the phone all day long while gazing at a rotation of sign language interpreters.
If you’re wondering how I became deaf, I have an interesting story. There’s a deaf gene running rampant in the family tree, going back five generations. I was born with normal (cough, cough) hearing and grew up hard of hearing. When I was 19, I was water skiing on my bare feet and crashed into the water in a not-so-graceful cartwheel. In an instant, I went from hard of hearing to deaf. Twenty five years after becoming deaf, I got back on the water again, inspired by a 67-year-old gal who can barefoot water ski– backwards. That’s my next goal– not to become 67, but to barefoot backwards.
I’m a mom of three kids who are now teenagers. You know those horror stories that everyone has about the teen years? Hogwash. The teen years are great. “You want the car, honey? Sure. Just finish loading the dishwasher, clean the upstairs bathroom and mop the kitchen floor. Then you can go.”
When I was asked to write for the Trib Local, I didn’t hesitate.
“Hey kids, can you cook dinner again? Mommy has to write.”
When Karen isn’t on the water barefooting, she can be found blogging at A Deaf Mom Shares Her World, or pounding out 140 characters of wisdom on Twitter under @DeafMom.
