Sometimes, a couple will get into a fight about something so innocuous that it’s hard to imagine how it was even a point of contention.
Parents will often disagree on each other’s parenting styles and there are more than enough stories of annoying mothers-in-law to easily understand how they could spur a marital conflict, but it’s a lot less common to hear people argue over whether their kids should wear a seat belt.
After all, that’s just one of the matters that should be a no-brainer, right?
But as one story about the struggle behind what most of us would see as an unequivocal good illustrates, even common beliefs aren’t exactly universal.
A young parent with twin babies has recently experienced a strain on her relationship with her husband over what languages they should teach their children.
As she explained in a Reddit post , she speaks English and Welsh and thinks the twins should be encouraged to learn both languages.
By contrast, her husband only speaks English and since all their close family is fluent in that language, he sees no need to teach them Welsh.
But as the woman said, “I’m of the opinion that the more languages our kids speak the better and that they need to be exposed to my language.”
And if you’re wondering why he feels strongly enough about this to argue against teaching them Welsh, she explained that too.
Part of it is that he doesn’t want them to be able to talk to him behind his back in a language he can’t understand, which was a concern the woman understood.
And as she put it, “In addition, though he hasn’t said it, I get the feeling he might be a bit concerned that the girls will love me more and speak to me in the other language in his presence, leaving him out of the loop.”
While she understands this fear too, she still thinks the benefits of teaching them Welsh outweigh these concerns.
It’s also worth noting that learning Welsh would essentially make the twins trilingual as the family is starting to learn British Sign Language.
This is because one of the daughters is showing signs that she’ll eventually experience hearing loss.
Although it’s unlikely that she’ll be completely deaf and there are still some tests needed to determine whether any of this will happen, it’s a precaution that everyone including the husband considers worth taking.
And that information factored heavily into how commenters advised the woman handle this situation.
They agreed that the twins could only benefit from growing up with skills in all of these languages and that sentiment was echoed by a speech-language pathologist.
This person also assured the woman that the bilingual children they work with come from a variety of families with different contexts in which the languages in question are taught and used.
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And in their words , “None of these language relationships are based on or affect the love in their families in any way. Your husband does not need to be concerned about this at all.”
Furthermore, most commenters felt that if the husband was still worried about what will happen, he can solve those problems by learning Welsh just as he has with BSL.
h/t: Reddit | babybumps_