Speaking of Guilt

Was I? Probably, I always am.

My son is doing very well in speech therapy. We do therapy (or "homework") at home every night, so I knew he was doing okay. But suddenly his everyday speech is pretty much normal.

It's been six months. I figured that was normal. But apparently, because he had so many sounds to fix, he is way ahead. We've been working on about six sounds all at once. I had no idea that most kids work on one or two sounds at a time.

I wish I had done this two years ago. Guilt. Woo hoo!

One day I told the practice manager at the therapists' that I really thought my orthodontia and jaw surgery during my son's early years contributed to his speech problems. She didn't think so (but I still think it's true). He was alone with me 90% of the time back then. Guilt. Guilt. Painful guilt. Yay!

But we've become friendly and now she'll come out from his sessions and say thing like, "Well, he did really well for a kid whose mother had braces." The other parents there must think she's horrible. I laugh, guiltily.

I have run into a roadblock, however. My son is currently working on words that end in "ar". And I can't make that sound to save my life. Especially if there is another "a" anywhere in the word.

My son is destined to sound like a reject from Good Will Hunting for the rest of his life thanks to me.

Ah, guilt. It goes down like a fine wine.