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!

I always let DS choose his specs - even if I thought they were ugly or didn't suit him, if he liked them he had them, because he had to wear them every day so may as well pick something he liked. But he had his first pair when he was a toddler so had no real memories of not wearing them. For him it was just part of everyday life - he calls them his face furniture.

On the other hand I hated my specs, I was 9 when I got them and they were ugly Deirdre Barlow plastic monstrosities. I didn't wear them because I was teased. I wore them at home but as soon as I was away from parental influence they came off. My parents were strict but they didn't know I wasn't wearing them.

My sister was bullied at school for wearing glasses, to the point of being punched in the face (aged 5). She was very reluctant to wear them.

Lello what?
My daughter is already nagging to get contacts now.
Other people's children don't provoke anything negative in me at all.
I know my daughter looks better without her glasses , as does my adult son.
I'm not going to lie.

My ds looks great in his glasses but he is a very handsome boy so I would expect that to be the case.

My 4 year old has prescription of +7.5 and has had glasses since last August, she has Nanovista's and wore the strap to keep them on until she could be trusted not to lose them.

She will, for some reason wear them outside and at nursery but absolutely will NOT wear them at home despite me telling her to and keeping putting them on her face constantly. I spoke to the opthalmologist about this and she said just to let her carry on and don't make a fuss about it because she is going to need glasses forever and will eventually realise on her own that she can see better with them on.

I've had glasses since age 3 and despite my Mum telling me to wear them and putting them on me I didn't regularly wear them until I hit my 20's, I used to walk out of the house with them on and shove them in my pocket until I got home! Now of course I can't see a bloody thing without them...

If glasses don't make an appreciable difference to a child's eyesight then it is probably much harder to get them to comply. My DD was prescribed glasses and after a week of battling it her as she could 'see fine without them' we got a second opinion and the glasses turned out to be unnecessary. In some cases glasses for children don't make a difference to their immediate vision, but are necessary for the development of vision and it must be difficult to get them to comply. I don't think adults have glasses for that reason, so don't have the same experience.

You are being bloody unreasonable OP. It is really hard.
Thankfully my optician was much more thoughtful and helpful than your post makes you sound, OP. He explained that as DD has significant eye problems, the correction was going to take time to get used to and she might be resistant. (He said all of this out of her hearing.) And resistant she was - it was a nightmare. She was 4 and hated them. I'd put them back on her more than 100 times a day (I counted one day), but she kept taking them off.
It took a lot of hard work and patience to get her to persist long enough in accepting the strange, new way the world looked before she would wear them all the time and I'm so glad I got support and advice from our opticians. Maybe you're in the wrong job.

Wisely you sympathise with a poster who describes an aspect of her child's appearance as hideous. Then you talk negatively about the appearance of two of your own children. Your attitude towards superficial appearance stinks. But it's sadly not uncommon.

My DD had glasses from 9 months. That was interesting! They were on and off all the time, as you can imagine. We always had extra pairs around and a glasses mending kit. And, as I did not yet drive at that time and we lived in the country, I was forever getting the bus to town with a bag of bits of glasses!

It was never a big problem to get her to wear them once she became old enough to realise that she could see better with them on. And we always made sure she had pretty glasses - we promised ourselves that she would have the best we could afford, so that choosing a new pair became fun.

I wear glasses and this helped as she saw it as the norm.

She is a happy glasses-wearing adult now and it has never been an issue.

Lello
I wouldn't find another posters child "hideous" l didn't say anything of the kind.
I said l understand not wanting something they are not born with stuck on their face!
I'm not bothered about being superficial. I was being honest. You are right about one thing. Lots of parents feel the same way.
My daughter's glasses effectively 'wipe out' her beautiful eyes.
She can see that too!
I knew/know my son is extremely handsome- his glasses did the same. When he chose contact lenses , his whole face came back. He felt better, and more himself.
Children don't pick on kids for wearing glasses like they used to - but believe you me, it still happens.
hun

YABU and very judgy. Count yourself lucky that you have a nice, compliant child......or maybe you just think you are superior parent as you can get your child to wear there glasses ?

I have one child diagnosed as being on the spectrum and one who very clearly isn't (but has some traits not noticeable to the general public).
It's the one who is NOT on the spectrum who is the most oppositional.
If that particular DC doesn't want to do something i have to fight tooth and nail to get them to do it. So i pick my battles. I spend most of my day fighting with this particular DC. It's infuriating.

If only it was as easy as you make it sound. As a child I was always allowed to choose my own glasses (even though my parents didn't really have the money) and I would wear them in the house but as soon as I walked round the corner to school off they'd come. My first prescription was -1.5 so not insignificant and I couldn't manage board work but I still refused to wear them. Looking back I think that it was a mix of not wanting to stand out as I was already an 'odd child' and sensory issues around wearing glasses (as an adult I've realised that I am ASD).
One day I just started wearing them all the time - I don't know why but I did. Nothing my parents did would have made a difference.

@FormerlyFrikadela01, would you be able to get varifocals with just clear glass in the top bit? That might make it easier for you.

I know a lot of people who will wear fake glasses just because it's a trend and thinks it looks good.

I needed glasses from when I was about 10 and probably still do now although I haven't got tested for years because I don't think they've got any worse. I know they will help but i feel like an idiot wearing them so I understand why other people don't like wearing them either. It's not as easy as just telling someone to put glasses on when they need to.

If only it was that simple.....
DD is a tiny bit short sighted so sometimes needs them to see the board at school and that's it. I'm not there to tell her to put them and I don't think she always wears them when needed.

My dd has been wearing glasses since she was 17 months. Her sight is very poor without them but even so we spent at least 2 years CONSTANTLY looking for her glasses which she would have pulled off her and discarded somewhere.

She's 6 now and has been wearing them happily since she was around 3 1/2 but I laugh at the OP saying "tell them." Might work for her children but with glasses, the child is ultimately the one who gets the final say because they'll keep whipping them off when you're not looking!

It's all very well thinking "well just tell them". I've 3dc.
Dc1 would have worn them if I'd told her no problem.
Dc2 would wear them if I'd come up with a good reason and she didn't mind them. She would also be quite capable of wearing them when I was there and losing them when I wasn't.
Dc3 I could order, beg, bribe etc but the only thing that would produce him wearing them all the time would be if he found them useful and wanted to.

If I'd only had dc1, then I'd have thought "just tell them" too.

Well it must be great to find parenting so easy. Just tell them. That's where I am going wrong with my children clearly .

Actually most of my friends' children do wear their glasses no problem (my DC do not need them although my DD1 wants them!), however I realise there are 101 reasons why it might be difficult to get a child to wear them.

I dunno. I'm really strict and all three of my kids would wear them if told to. My kids probably hate me but they do as they're told

I suppose all kids are different but I tend to wonder if it's actually because all parenting is different.

I agree that there's probably a reason if the child really won't wear them - I was an adult when I got my first glasses which make looking at screens easier, but thanks to balance issues I can't move or walk or stand up with them on, so mostly I don't bother - luckily I can drive without them.

Thankfully my very stubborn children haven't needed glasses (and dn can see so little without them he insists on them even when impractical), but much sympathy to those having to enforce it - returning a child to bed over 100 times a night is bad enough.

My daughter has worn glasses since she was 4. She has never refused to wear them. Then again, we never made an issue out of it, she put her glasses on in the same way as she put her socks or pants on. There are several girls in her class wearing glasses and she's never said she doesn't want to wear them. We do let her take them off when she;s at soft play and obviously for things like swimming but she gets more comments from her friends then - they think she looks odd without them.

For all those struggling with patching I highly recommend these:
www.etsy.com/uk/listing/171104305/kids-orthoptic-eye-patch-for-amblyopia?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=eye%20patch&ref=sr_gallery_1

DD hated the stick on patches and cried and cried when I put one on. These have been so much better and you can get lovely designs. Problem is she can cheat and look over her glasses.... Still seems to be working though!

Thanks maiya we are about to start eye drops to see if that works but if not I will try one of those! She would love the Spider-Man one!

Our optician said dd would wear them if she really needed them. There was some debate at age 4 about if she really needed it just fancied a pair after watching peppa pig. She wears them when she needs to without being asked so I I guess she did really need them

Lj good luck with the drops. If I never see a bottle of the stuff again it will be too soon!