Nervous about passing my stuttering genes
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Nervous about passing my stuttering genes I recently got engaged to my bf of almost 6 years - and I am so excited! We are planning to get married next summer and my fiance and I were talking about our future together and having a family (we both want kids). However, I am a little concerned about having kids because my stuttering (which is genetic). I am one of three kids and I am the only one who stutters (my dad stutters). My dad is from Poland and there wasn't any proper speech therapist/classes at that place and time so he worked hard to control his stutter - he speaks fluently now but once and a while his stutter can he heard. I however, grew up in L.A. and I began to stutter like a lot people who do around 4-5 and I was fortunate to have a parent who stutters - because my dad really helped me on my confidence and to deal with it (I'm shamelessly a daddy's girl :) And another lucky thing was that I was sent to speech therapy early on. However, being a teen with a slight stutter wasn't easy - that was my most anxious period. I was laughed at by some kids for stuttering but I had more supporters than haters when it came to my speech - I remember I was so nervous when I had my Bat Mitzvah - where I had to read in Hebrew from the Torah - and even though I did stutter a little bit - my friends and family supported me and that I was such a inspiring/loving moment. I pretty much controlled my stutter when I was in my late teens. I would stutter whenever I'm tired, nervous or frustrated - and I'm bothered when I stutter or lock up. But now with getting married and thinking of kids - I wonder if anyone here who stutters ever worry about 'passing on' their stutter to their kids. Are you afraid of it? What's your thought about it?