‘You don’t realise what they can teach you’
Ian Holloway has opened up on his experiences of raising deaf children and the magic that they provide in his life.
While known for his exploits on the touchline as a manager, Holloway’s life away from the dugout is just as important to him.
Holloway has four children, three of them diagnosed as being deaf, and during an exclusive interview with JOE, he recalled one of the moments with his children that left him with a “tear in his eye.”
“We were walking back to the place [in the Maldives] and my little daughter, she’s only seven or eight went, ‘what’s wrong?’
“I went, ‘You can’t hear the waves on the…You can’t hear that.” And she went, ‘Oh yeah, but can you see the diamonds dancing on the water?’
“So I stopped thinking like I did and I looked over and Oh my God, exactly what it looked like. We were both hugging and, you know, ‘Don’t worry, Dad. I’m deaf and you know, wow, it’s just different.'”
"You don't realise what they can teach you."
Ian Holloway on the marvel of raising deaf children ❤️ pic.twitter.com/SfSIQaeNSw
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) November 1, 2022
Holloway then continued to reminisce and explained how that one special moment with his daughter taught him to cherish how magic life can be and the importance of learning sign language.
“Because you want to provide and you take everything away, you don’t realise what they can teach you.
“It’s like doing a jigsaw puzzle with no picture on the box. They’re wonderful and I’m proud of them.
“I want the world to know that if you’ve got a deaf child, don’t worry, they’ll be fine. But do this because it makes their life easier.”
Ian Holloway’s new book ‘How to Be a Football Manager: Enter the hilarious and crazy world of the gaffer’ is out now
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