People whose young children have glasses: how often do they break them?

[GrouchyKiwi]

My 5-year-old has had glasses for about two months. We're on our second pair after the first ones broke when she was rough-housing with the dog. She's just broken the second pair playing silly games with her sisters.

I feel mortified that she's going through them so quickly and will just "fix" these with some tape this time.

But is this typical for this age group or have we chosen some particularly flimsy glasses?

DD6 has had hers since January and they’ve not broken. But we spent £15 to get a bendy pair that she loved as opposed to the free ones so perhaps that makes a difference. She wears them 24/7.

DS has worn them since 4 (now 9) and hasn't broken any - but they do get a bit loose and wonky over time so we go back fairly regularly to have them sorted out.

Well in our local opticians all of the staff know us, recognise ds, have his notes ready by the time we get to the counter....'oh dear what's happened this time?'. Maybe 8 pairs in 2 years? Plus 2 for prescription changes.

This was typical for us. We had frequent trips to the optician at age 3-6. DS is 9 and we only go once or twice a year now for breakages or adjustments.

We have found the plastic frames last better. we tried metal frames but the arms frequently snapped.

DS first pair of glasses aged 2, were plastic and bendy. They were virtually indestructible, but he outgrew the style. Opticians should stock more styles like this.

DD has only broken her glasses once, was hit square in face with a basketball. She went to the school office and they let her phone me "mum I need you to come in, I was doing PE and I've broken my glasses" I was so relieved no trip to A&E was required I agreed to paying for ray-ban frames as the replacement (with her free NHS pair for PE)

My daughter has had glasses since 14m and is now 4. She's not broken any yet but that is because I bankrupt myself buying bendy kids frames.

She is completely unable to see without her glasses so to us it has been worth it.

The brand is nano kids and independent options sell them. You can use the NHS voucher toward the cost. They are great.

They're apparently free here in Scotland, which makes me feel extra bad. I offered to pay for the second pair and was told I couldn't.

I’m in Scotland and pay for my DDs glasses - to my knowledge you’re entitled to one free pair per prescription. My DD is 8 and wears glasses, she’s been doing ok lately but she did manage 6 pairs in 5 months - including breaking both her main pair and spare pair in exactly the same place, on the same day approximately 4 hours apart. She’s very active, utterly fearless and throws herself into everything wholeheartedly - keeping glasses safe is a secondary consideration for her.

Our optician says it’s just how it is, some kids can be very accident prone with glasses, no “walk of shame” to be had.

My son has had them since he was 18 months old. He broke one pair falling off a chair. The arm shattered and went into his head and he had to have stitches. Since then he's had the completely flexible ones with a frame made from one piece of plastic. At seven he's just got more grown up ones but they seem to be doing ok (touch wood!).

jellycat I wonder why she wouldn't let me pay for the second pair, then. Do you get the NHS voucher things other posters are talking about?

I'm going to ask if they have more robust frames when we go back in.

Thanks for all the helpful comments!

All.the.flipping.time

I wonder why she wouldn't let me pay for the second pair, then. Do you get the NHS voucher things other posters are talking about?

I do and our optician does 2 for one s I’ve always got a spare pair free but when my daughter broke both pairs we got the NHS voucher ones replaced for free but had to pay for the spare pair.

Her first pair were all rubber so she couldnt really break them. We then worked our way up to plastic frames then metal. Shes had glasses since she was 2 so steadily got used to them