a day ago
Teen Is in Trouble for Wearing Noise-Canceling AirPods at Dinner — but She Thinks She Had a Valid Reason
A Reddit user vented about her family's loud chewing at the dinner table — and revealed her 'sneaky' solution
'I sneakily put my AirPods into my ears (no music playing of course) and I covered them with my hair. I set them on noise canceling,' the 14-year-old Redditor wrote
Her mom caught her, got mad and told her it was 'immature' and 'disrespectful' to wear AirPods to the dining tableA 14-year-old girl discreetly tuned out her family until she got caught.
The teen explained on Reddit's 'Am I the A------' forum that her mom is 'mad' at her for wearing AirPods to the dinner table at a relative's house to cancel out the noise of her family's loud chewing and talking.
'I have very good hearing. I would say it's better than average,' she wrote. 'Of course, better-than-average hearing can be great sometimes, but it can also be a pain — especially considering the fact that I am very VERY sensitive to chewing noises. They truly disgust me.'
'This problem has been a real touchy subject in my family,' she continued. 'I've told my parents about it before, but they write it off as me being extra sensitive because I haven't eaten enough that day or something.'
The girl then described her summer visit to the relative's house.
'He, as well as most of my family, is a very loud talker and an especially loud chewer,' she said. 'The noises have been overwhelming and I am sitting with people on either side of me and across from me.'
'Sometimes it gets so irritating I feel I must excuse myself to the kitchen,' she wrote, before detailing her 'polite and sneaky solution' to the noises around her. 'I sneakily put my AirPods into my ears (no music playing of course) and I covered them with my hair. I set them on noise canceling.'
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Her solution worked 'pretty well' with the chewing and the talking still audible but not as unbearable to her. However, her mom got mad and told her it was 'immature' and 'disrespectful' to wear the AirPods to dinner.
Wondering if her mom is right, the teen asked Redditors, 'Am I the a------ for wearing noise-canceling headphones at the dinner table?'
One reader reassured her that she's 'not the a------' and encouraged the teen to 'get tested for things like misophonia [severe sensitivity to sounds] because what you're describing is not just sensitive hearing.'
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As other people chimed in about misophonia — which the Cleveland Clinic describes as 'a disorder where you have a decreased tolerance to specific sounds' — the teen responded to their comments.
'Thank you! I told my mom about it and she looked into it,' the teen replied in an update in her Reddit thread. 'She is allowing me to wear headphones now and we will talk to my therapist about it too!'
Read the original article on People
