Woman 'Refuses To Learn Sign Language To Communicate' With Her Deaf Step-Daughter

Oct 27, 2021 by apost team

Learning a new language can be fun and exciting, but it is usually pretty time-consuming. While there are a lot of benefits to learning a second language, sadly, not everyone has the time to do so. At least, that’s what one woman’s excuse is when it comes to choosing not to learn American sign language in order to communicate with her hearing-impaired step-daughter.

The woman explained that she has two kids named Jay and Juniper from a past marriage who are both under the age of 10. When she married her husband named Buford about a year ago, both she and Buford were under the impression that he had no children. However, they later found out that he actually has a 15-year-old daughter named Markita.

Buford’s ex and Markita used to live in a different state, but they now live just a 40-minute drive away from Buford, so he is able to see her every now and then. Sometimes Markita will come over to his house, meaning she also gets to spend time with his wife and step-children.

The issue Buford’s wife is having is that Markita is hearing impaired, so Buford wants her and her kids to learn sign language, or at least the very basics of it. However, the wife claims that she has no free time because she works so much and has to raise her kids, so she is unwilling to learn. This has caused some strain on their marriage, so the wife went to Reddit on Oct. 20, 2021, to seek advice.

Starting off her Reddit post, the original poster (OP) explained that she and her husband had no intentions of having more kids as she already had an 8-year-old son named Jay and a 5-year-old daughter named Juniper. However, those plans changed when the family found out that Buford actually had a daughter named Markita.

Markita’s mom never told Buford that she was pregnant, and she ended up moving states, so he never knew about his daughter until the family reached out to him through social media. Shortly after, Markita and her mom moved back, allowing Buford to have visitation rights to see his daughter. “There’s no formal custody arrangement between Buford and mom so it’s basically just sporadic weekends and school holidays,” OP explained. “Usually this is just between the two of them, but sometimes she will come to the house and has even slept over a few times.”

OP continued, “Here’s my dilemma. Markita is hearing-impaired.I’m not entirely sure to what degree but I do know she almost exclusively uses ASL.” Since no one in the family knows sign language, Buford started learning and encouraged OP and her kids to learn, too, so they could communicate more with Markita.

However, OP didn’t want to learn. “The truth is that I really don’t know if that is worth the effort,” she explained. “Markita is present at our house maybe once a month. I would consider it if she were going to be over more often, but I work 48 hours a week and I just don’t have time for something like this.”

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OP already knew three languages, one of which she learned during adulthood, and admitted that that was a tough challenge. She explained that she couldn’t “fit something like that” into her current schedule, but Jay and Juniper could learn if they wanted to. It turned out that since OP didn’t want to learn, her kids didn’t want to either. “Buford thinks I’m being ridiculous since I have no other way of communicating with Markita,” OP said. However, she wondered if she was wrong for not wanting to learn sign language to any extent.

Reddit users were appalled that OP would not take the effort to try to communicate with her step-daughter and that she refused to even learn a few basic signs. One user commented, “OP doesn’t know if it’s worth it because Markita is only there once a month right now? Never mind the fact that she’s going to be a part of their lives forever now, right?”

Another user pointed out how dangerous it could be if OP didn’t learn. The user said, “My mom taught me the alphabet and a handful of basic signs in ASL in maybe 10 minutes. It takes very little effort to learn the basics and that is necessary for when the step-daughter is staying with them. What if there’s an accident or emergency? OP will be unable to communicate, because she’s selfish and reckless.”

It was clear that Redditors were not happy with the fact that OP didn’t want to learn any sign language and encouraged her to find the time so she could communicate with her step-daughter.

What do you think about this woman deciding not to learn sign language for her hearing-impaired step-daughter? Let us know, and be sure to pass this along to your friends and family, too.