When do I have to start wearing glasses (vs when big name opticians say I do)

[bluekingfisher]

I always feel the opticians are hard selling me glasses after I go in there for a test. My eye sight has changed -0.25 since two years ago and isn’t bad enough to need glasses for driving etc. I have astigmatism that the optician has said is pretty bad. I have had most of my life and think my eyes have accommodated it naturally so I can see well, can see small text from a distance. I don’t have any symptoms around this day to day.

I believe I can see reasonably without glasses
but the opticians said I would ideally be wearing them all the time. So I don’t know if I should get glasses or not. Ideally I don’t want the faff of them unless I actually need them

This. Why not trust people who have trained to do their job for years? I go to Specsavers and there is no pressure to buy glasses there and then and you can use the prescription to buy cheaper. Glasses online eg Glasses Direct.

It’s rather worrying that you’re happy to carry on driving your children about without wearing corrective lenses when you’ve been told you need them.
This is not reasonable parental behaviour.

She hasn't been told she needs them for driving. Her vision from what she says appears to be better than 20/20. She has astigmatism which may mean she gets glare around lights at night and glasses might help that, but as she doesn't drive at night it's not relevant. For night driving it might be best to keep glasses on the car, but wearing them all the time seems like overkill to me.

And she doesn't say whether that better than 20/20 vision is corrected or not. It most likely is.

Astigmatism can cause far more than just nighttime glare. For me, everything is in soft focus. I starred wearing glasses in my 20s with a prescription similar to OP because I was struggling with close up stuff and hadn't realised how bad my distance vision was, too.

I think opticians are suggesting glasses at a lower threshold than they used to. Two of my kids can manage without glasses but they find life easier when they wear them. I started wearing glasses a couple of years ago because I found I wasn’t always recognising people when I saw them in the street, even though my perception was that my vision was okay. I was quite shocked at the difference glasses made. I can see small print and objects that are far away and they seem clear but when I put my glasses on they’re even clearer. It’s hard to explain but it might be worth you trying a pair of glasses to see whether it makes a difference for you.