The Hits host Brad Watson and his son, Finn. Photo / Supplied
Welcome to the Herald’s parenting podcast: One Day You’ll Thank Me. Join parents and hosts Jenni Mortimer and Rebecca Haszard as they navigate the challenges and triumphs of parenting today with help from experts and well-known mums and dads from across Aotearoa.
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Brad Watson loves music.
“Music is my life. Audio is my life,” says the radio host for The Hits, who has been in the business for 24 years.
But when his second child, a beautiful little boy named Finn, was born deaf, Watson found himself grappling with the fact that his son may never experience the same joy music has brought him.
“Music has literally taken me around the world and given me everything. I couldn’t live without it.”
So, when Watson’s wife Kim brought their little boy home from Starship after tests confirmed he was deaf, “We all literally just cried,” says the adoring dad, who is also father to Piper, 3.
“For him, we were just generally sad. We were like, ‘Man, what’s this poor boy going to go through?’ You know how kids are, and what bullying’s like. It all just hit us.”
But when Finn was eventually fitted with hearing aids, the family’s hope for his future was restored.
In a heart-warming video captured by Watson of the moment his little boy hears for the first time, Finn’s face lights up as he registers his parents’ voices and delights in the sound of his own laughter.
“His reaction, it was just joy for us,” Watson recalls. “We were like, ‘Yes, mate. There you go.’ We realised pretty quickly that things were going to be okay.”
Watson says when he plays music at home now, Finn “absolutely loves it.”
“Piper dances - he gets in there and does his little strut around the lounge.”
While Watson says the support from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education has been incredible and the family has become part of a new community, the experience of having a child with a disability has set them on an unexpected journey that’s involved a huge amount of learning.
Going forward, Finn will require continued assistance with his hearing, and the family are learning sign language together.
For fellow parents navigating a similar experience, Watson’s advice is simple: Take all the help on offer early on, and celebrate what makes your child unique.
“I feel like if you’ve got [hearing aids], just rock them. Get bright ones or put some stickers or something on them; be proud of them. We chose bright green [for Finn] because we wanted him to be proud of them.”
It’s a sentiment Whangārei man Glen McMillan understands first-hand and promotes through his charity, Children With Disability NZ.
McMillan, now 62, was left with a disability after an accident at the age of 10 that saw him spend four years in hospital relearning how to walk and talk. During his recovery, McMillan became a voracious reader and, amid running several successful businesses, he has dedicated his life to helping others, promoting inclusiveness in play, and normalising disabilities.
“The best thing you can do is encourage your children, not on their disabilities, but on their abilities,” he tells the One Day You’ll Thank Me hosts.
“They may have some disability, but they may have a huge amount of abilities, so you need to find out what their abilities are and foster them and encourage them.
“The more we can give our disabled children to do, and the more they can interact with others, the greater the acceptance. But it’s got to start from the parents and the older people that are making the rules.”
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