I have another cliche to add to the mix. Being a speech therapist changes the way you mother. Every colleague I have ever had shares the same view. From the moment you look at a sonogram and ask if all the craniofacial features look good to popping open your minute-old child's mouth to check for cleft to fretting over every communication milestone - yes, you know that your profession has changed you. We are victims of knowing too much about what can go wrong developmentally. The low percentage children are the ones we see 90% of the time. We know the struggles a child and a family can face.
We beat ourselves up if we are not reading 10 books a day or put on a DVD so that we can have a moment to go to the bathroom in peace. We keep count of how many words our child has at any given moment and cringe at even the developmentally appropriate articulation errors. We parallel talk to the point of being sick of our own voices. We OBSESS over developmental milestones. Our professional knowledge makes us crazy!
But, there is the another side to being a mother who is a speech therapist.
Many friends have said to me that you spend the first year of your child’s life trying to get them to talk and the rest of it trying to get them to shut up. I know that this is meant to be funny, but I can't bring myself to even joke about this. Communication is such an integral part of who we are and how we connect. My child’s words, phrases, vocal play, and sentences, (though loud and repetitive at times), are a joy to me. I have worked with far too many parents who would do anything to be able to hear their child speak.
There are many things I take for granted (though I try not to), but communication is not one of them.
I hope it never is.
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