For anyone who is willing to admit it, parenting is a complicated journey full of decisions, obstacles and joy.
But for parents with unique circumstances, like blindness, Deafness and chronic pain, their parenting journeys will look a little different than what is often portrayed in magazines and on Instagram.
Though this makes their parenting status no less valid, there might be people out there who have questions about how they tackle aspects of parenting that other parents might take advantage of.
Cheyenna Clearbrook, a popular star of Netflix's Deaf U, for instance, was happy to answer questions about what her motherhood looks like as a Deaf mom and how she's navigated her Deafness in her parenting.
A popular question that came up on her TikTok channel was how she could hear her young baby crying at nighttime, which parents worry about sleeping through enough as it is.
In her video, Clearbrook signed her response with overlaid text translations, describing the devices she uses at night.
"These are what we use every night and overnight."
"This is the receiver. It connects with vibrations and another device. When the baby cries, it sends a signal to the sensor first, and then it sends it to the receiver."
"This is how we wake up when our baby is crying."
Clearbrook then manually triggers the device, causing it to elicit three loud beeps. The other two attached devices then heavily vibrate and show a bright flashing light to get Clearbrook's attention.
Some parents will utilize these as physical and visual stimulations by keeping the device that vibrates up against their body during the night to wake them up, along with a device that flashes nearby.
Clearbrook also uses a traditional baby monitor during the day.
You can watch the video here:
Fellow TikTokers were floored by the information in the video.
@cheyennaclearbrookxo/TikTok
@cheyennaclearbrookxo/TikTok
@cheyennaclearbrookxo/TikTok
@cheyennaclearbrookxo/TikTok
@cheyennaclearbrookxo/TikTok
@cheyennaclearbrookxo/TikTok
@cheyennaclearbrookxo/TikTok
Though not all parenting looks exactly the same, that does not mean that it is not valid or is any less effective than someone else's parenting.
The best thing to do is to become informed about different styles of parenting, as well as different parenting needs like Clearbrook's, so we can better understand the world we're in and remove the stigma of there being one "correct" style of parenting.
@lordye/Bluesky