To think that it's really not hard to get a kid to wear their specs?

[Despairbunny]

I work in an opticians & have lost count of the amount of times parents say to me "He/she just won't wear them." Um....tell them to?

I am both a glasses wearer & parent to a kid who wear specs. Dd might not always like wearing her specs, but if I tell her to, she would!

AIBU & judgy? I work with a lot of dc who are on the autistic spectrum or who have a variety of SEN & yet it's never Those Kids who have issues!

DS was fine until he got to age 11. He knows why he has to wear glasses, he just dislikes doing so. When I'm with him I can constantly tell him to put them on, and he will. Not much I can do about the hours he is out with friends/at school/holed up in his room. I'd love for OP to tell me what I am doing wrong!

I didn't wear my glasses when I was a child, and still don't wear them now. I was always stubborn about lots of things and I'm pretty sure that I always will be. Even now some busybody insisting that I MUST do something usually results in me not doing whatever it is, unless it suits me to. You are lucky to have compliant children, but there is a lot to be said for stubborn people especially in situations where there is a right thing to do or the thing you are told to do.

However, wearing glasses didn't make that much difference to my sight, I had one perfect eye and one very short-sighted. It was actually harder to cope with the glasses as I was about 11 when they were prescribed so I had got used to seeing without them and I had trouble with depth of field when wearing them. For instance, going down stairs was difficult as I couldn't tell where the step was.

I think there are definitely some wilful children who won't be reasoned with - absolutely, I've taught some of them! - and I think asking children with SN to wear glasses can sometimes come with its own set of difficulties.

I have a nephew and a niece who wear glasses full time. My nephew (now 9) got his glasses when he was 4 and was so enthralled by how he could now 'see' everything (he took huge steps on the way back from the opticians as he could see where he was going clearly and had to judge the distance!), that he has worn them without issue ever since. He broke them regularly for about 4 years - he's not the most careful of children - but he always wears them.

My niece is approaching 5 and has had her glasses for about 9mths. She wears them without any issue too (mostly!) and they're so much a part of her now! When I hired a studio to take photographs last November, the owner asked if she could take them off to make the lighting easier to set - she started taking them off before I said she would be wearing them as they're part of who she is! I worked around it and sorted the lighting myself then.

2 of my others nephews are supposed to wear them for board work, but I suspect they don't at all. I don't think they see the need, because they don't need them all the time, and their parents aren't there to reinforce it.

Another nephew wears them for reading and computer work. He wears them religiously for this, but then he likes rules and this is one of them! (It's his sister with the glasses full time)

I think it can be hard work to get children to wear glasses, but worth persevering with. I was gutted when I didn't need glasses when I was about 6 - I'd picked the frames I wanted and everything!

I still can't get past fashion glasses for six year olds.

NeoNeo you are totally wrong there because the one place I ALWAYS wore my glasses was in class. So no risk to my education, you'll be relive to learn.
The reason I was wearing them was Because I couldnt see anything from the board.

Its outside the school that I hardly wore them because i didnt feel the need.

Im surprised at the idea that not wearing glasses (to see better) would make your eyesight worse.
I had never been told that. But I have been told this was about the relative size of my eye so as I would be growing up, this would get worse. And it did.
And then some more even though by that time, I was wearing my glasses constantly

Neo Actually I have read your point again and have decided that I probably didnt answer because I cant understand what you mean.

Why is my case an example of why children shoud be made to wear them exactely??

Bluepeppers

Neoneo was being an arse about your spelling. However on her first post managed to confuse a full stop for a comma and semi colon for an apostrophe. She obviously wasn't wearing her glasses at that time....

Miaowcat how much time and effort to you take to get the 'non patched eye' in photographs? If a lazy eye makes you sob your heart out I think you need a little perspective. Do you consider other peoples kids to be hideous when wearing eye patches?

Fabulous attitude Miaow. Fantastic role model for your kids. You must be very proud.

I would recommend anyone struggling to ask for an appointment with an Orthoptist who specialises in children's vision especially those with squints or lazy eyes.

All young children should have a glasses test with drops in to ensure accuracy and for many children with a small amount of longsight this is actually normal and if they have good vision they may not actually need glasses at all !

I've seen many children not wearing their glasses because they have been given a weak prescription that they don't need or because they are very undercorrected in their glasses so see no benefit to wearing them!

I wish more than anything my DD could have managed an eye patch. But she has severe autism and can't, so has probably lost functional sight in that eye forever.

So please think about it before posting shallow posts about photos.

Ok stay being shallow and selfish then.

I was prescribed weak glasses at 6. I hated them from day one (and still do).

My mum tried everything from letting me choose the frame to encouragement to nagging to punishment to getting the teacher on my case. I remember that the more she pushed the more often I lost the glasses or sat on them. The sand pit in my old primary school was the finso resting place of at least 5 pairs of my ex specs. I started wearing my glasses only when I walked in in my mum's partner in the bathroom and called him mum.

I started wearing contacts at 14.
I was both vain and stubborn. sorry mum

So in short, it's easy when you have a compliant child.

I've needed glasses for reading/computer use since I was a child. I hated wearing them since day 1. My long vision is impeccable so in order to see the board at school I had to look over the top of my glasses which feels so wrong.
I wear them more now because I spend half my life on the computer (thankyou NHS red tape and paper work) however I'm constantly taking them on and off because I can't stand speaking to people whose face I can't see clearly and feel rude looking over the top of my glasses.

Ds has sn and it is a constant battle to keep his on. He wants to either chew them or throw them and sometimes there are more important battles.

TABU

I never wore mine in the 12 years I was supposed to. My eyes are fine though 😕

It's not a nice feeling forcing your DC to do something when they find it upsetting.

Touch wood DD2's vision is ok at present (very prem baby so bit of a surprise) but trying to get eyedrops in her had me sobbing in the bath nightly for a week.

I was forever being nagged to put mine on as a kid.

miaow
I understand.
My DD wears glasses and it upsets her to wear them. She does though.
However, if l'm being perfectly honest, l don't like them either.
She has massive beautiful blue eyes, her short sightedness prescription makes her eyes look teeny.
Roll on contact lenses!

Wisely and if your child chooses not to wear contact lenses will you still think she looks hideous ? ( Because you totes understand and agree with how Miaow feels about her daughters hideous eyepatch Hun)

My ds needed glasses at 5 for a lazy eye, double squint and long sightedness. He has ASD and goes to a SN school. He wouldn't comply with the eye test at school so had to go to the hospital for his first eye test and then get held down by me and three others to get the eye drops in.

He is about the most resistant to change child it is possible imagine and wears the same clothes throughout the entire year as he can't make the switch from summer to winter.

I managed to get him to wear glasses. It was a fucking long and wearysome battle but it was crucial and I won in the end.

When he got a new prescription he refused new glasses. It took 3 months of putting his new glasses on every morning only for him to rip them off and throw them across the room. One day he didn't do that and the battle was won.