Rose_P

Some degree of deafness is much more common than most of us are aware, and it's more serious than even some doctors realize. I can testify from personal experience that a hearing loss that is considered "slight" can be a major problem. The first thing to go for most people is high frequency sounds, which include for example, the letters "s", "f" and "th". If you have your word processor find and remove all those letter in a document and try to read it, you will see that it's not always easy to make sense, and it definitely slows you down. This is what it's like for a person to listen if they have a hearing loss, or even if they don't but are trying to function in an environment that is too noisy. Add to that the difficulty of coping with the deficient speakers at most drive-up windows and the problem that many of those workers have of taking the next order while speaking to the customer who is already at the window paying and asking for extra mustard or whatever. Still, what part of wanting bacon on you bacon burger or Coke in your Coke is hard to comprehend? I've learned to check my order before driving off because it's wrong quite often.

As an aside, if you have a child (or spouse) who doesn't seem to be listening, have his/her hearing tested by a professional audiologist associated with a medical doctor and take a good hard look at anything that is described as a "slight" loss.