Summary Of Hands Of My Father By Myron Uhlberg

In the book Hands of My Father by Myron Uhlberg, I learned about a hearing child’s life being raised by two Deaf parents. I gained insight on hearing children with Deaf parents, how Deaf parents depend on their hearing children, frustrations associated with being a hearing child of Deaf parents, personal difficulties Myron encountered while interpreting for his parents, etc. Hearing children with Deaf parents often had the roles reversed, Deaf parents relied on hearing children to translate and explain things to them. If my parents were Deaf I’m sure I would do my best to help them when they need it just as Myron did. I am familiar with having to do more for my family than the average child so I’m sure I would struggle with the same frustrations

The look of “fear” in strangers’ eyes when asking his father a question on the street to only receive his father’s “harsh voice” announcing his Deafness is ridiculous. The fact that in his personal experience, he witnessed people run away as if his father’s Deafness was a disease is mind-blowing. It is upsetting that Deaf people are forced to rely on their hearing children to aid them in the hearing world where hearing people don’t have the patience for Deaf people. The difficulty translating for his father in situations like those at the butcher shop where the butcher refused to take their order and called Myron’s father a dummy and Myron having to translate that to his father has to be so trying as a child. I couldn’t imagine having to personally tell one of my parents something so hurtful that someone said to them, the act of it coming from me would be quite terrifying, honestly. My very favorite quote from this book is, “My language is not a black and white language. The language of my hands and face and body is a Technicolor language. When I am angry, my language is red-hot like the sun. When I am happy, my language is blue like the ocean, and green like a meadow, and yellow like pretty flowers.” Hearing culture focuses so much on verbal communication they miss out on the visual

I grew up with a single mother who eventually married and had two children, but then divorced and is a single mother again. I was relied on by my mother to co-parent my sisters, being 8 months and 3 at the time. My whole teenage life consisted of being a second mother to my two little sisters. It was a taxing, unfair, resentful time in my life. I love my sisters more than anything but my mother is who I resent for making me responsible for things that were only hers to deal with. Although Myron’s resentment is towards his brother for needing his constant help and care, I believe it was not fair of his parents to rely on Myron to do such grand parental duties at a ridiculously young age. It made me angry for him that he was the one required to wake when his brother did at night and then wake his mother. If his mother (the first time) and other Deaf parents can manage taking care of an infant then they can do it again and it should never be the child’s responsibility to do parental duties just because they are hearing. Myron’s mother’s system for when he was an infant would have worked the same for his brother. It is unfair and wrong of his parents to make it Myron’s responsibility to handle such a complex and terrifying disorder at only 9 years old. Myron is hearing yet his parents’ system for him to wake up to his