AirPods Pro protect parents
I've been protective of my hearing since I started listening to cassettes of children's music on a Sony Walkman in the late 1980s. I'd keep the volume low so as not to damage my hearing. I'd always wear ear protection when participating in activities with loud sounds such as working with power tools and heavy equipment.
Since meeting the founder of made-for-music festival earplug manufacturer EarPeace in the bar of a suburb of Guangzhou many years ago, I started becoming more cognizant of the risks of environmental noise is social environments. He gave me a demo of his product and made me an instant convert. I religiously carry their earplugs in my pocket and use them every time I'm in a bar, concert or other venue where the sound is dangerously loud.
I like to think that this has protected my hearing and kept it at a level that is much better than expected for my age.
As a new father, I was pretty shocked at the volume of my son's cry. I'd never really thought about how loudly babies cry before, but I guess I assumed it wouldn't be loud enough to harm their parents' hearing. Evolution certainly wouldn't do something like that! Except it did!
The cry of an infant is one of the loudest naturally occurring sounds most people will ever be exposed to....and certainly the loudest randomly occurring sound I've ever had to live with. It can get as loud as 120 decibels which is the sound of an aircraft taking off or a chainsaw. I didn't expect that having a child would also mean that I'd have the sound pressure equivalent of an aircraft taking off in my home periodically throughout the day.
When he's unhappy or uncomfortable and I'm at close proximity trying to change a diaper or calm him, his cry felt so loud as to be almost physically painful. I, of course, wanted to take care of him, but I also didn't want to end up being a deaf father, so I needed a solution.
When I'm home, I don't usually have the EarPeace earplugs close at hand as they live on my keychain, so those were out. And even if they were in my pocket, they tend to be a bit fidgety to put in or remove. And fidgeting with tiny rubber earplugs in the dark when you have an unhappy infant is not a recipe for success.
But it turns out I already had a solution in my pocket...AirPods Pro. They are large, easy to put in and take out in a dark nursery and by default they reduce loud noises to protect my hearing. I leave mine in adaptive mode which not only protects me from the loudest of my son's cries but also slightly reduces the volume and, consequently, the emotional intensity of the entire situation. I find this also helps to calm me down and get less frustrated by his crying so that I can focus on meeting his needs instead of my own physical discomfort. And that's music to all four of our ears.
