We have all experienced making a decision for our child that we thought was the right one at the time, but later discovered that it was not the best choice after all. Fortunately, most decisions are not a matter of life or death, and we have the opportunity to re-evaluate the situation and look at other options.
Being flexible and open to other options is a critical part of raising a child who is deaf or hard of hearing. When something isn't working, we must be able to admit it, search out advice from others and change directions. We also need to forgive ourselves and each other, accept that we made the best decision we could with the information available. We then need to move on and not look back.
I have learned over the years that you cannot go back and kick yourself for the decisions you made years ago. If you have done your research and feel that you are making the best decision at the time, you cannot second-guess yourself. You make your decisions based on the information you have at the time, and none of us make the right decision 100% of the time.
Let it go. We have all made choices that may not always work out as planned. But, as long as we support our children and continue to build their confidence, things will work out. We don't have a master plan to follow for our children who are deaf or hard of hearing, so we make decisions based on what we feel is the best at the time. We can learn from the process, and we may even find that what we've experienced is helpful to someone else down the road.
Nothing is written in stone. If you find that the decision is not the best, change it.
There are no rules here to be broken. Know that there is no right way for everyone. No one knows what is best for your child. You just have to watch and look for signs that a certain method is not working and be willing to try other ways.
