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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to think glasses are magic...

68 replies

Whyarealltheusernamestaken · 06/05/2018 03:25

Ok maybe not magic, but I got my first set of glasses today. Thought I only had a minor issue reading tv subtitles. Suddenly the world is sharp, and far too weird. I don’t know if I like it, it’s too much!

OP posts:

ToadOfSadness · 06/05/2018 08:54

Oh yes, taking them off when you don't want to see the dust in the house is handy too. I actually only tend to wear mine to go out or watch TV because they hurt my ears or fall off my face in spite of going back 5 times to get them fitted (need to find a new optician), but since surgery I can see much better anyway.

SecretIsland · 06/05/2018 08:55

Unimaginative I'm fascinated by orthokeratology. Ds1's eyes are currently only -1 but he's only 10 and I have a huge prescription (-11.5!) so if he follows me he may well end up a lot worse.

Our optician is testing him every 6 months and we'll be trying the orthokeratology route if his eyes worsen...not only does it correct your sight in the day but in children actually stops sight getting any worse. If I can save my dc from having my sight I definitely will.

MeMyShelfandIkea · 06/05/2018 08:55

Glasses obviously have a magical quality in that they make you brainy and serious (well at least according to the movies/tv). I don't wear glasses so I must be thick!

UnimaginativeUsername · 06/05/2018 09:02

Yeah. The myopia control thing in children sounds great. DS1 is too old now (although his prescription reduced last time he was tested - that never happens to me) but I think it’s the way to go if DS2 needs glasses. He’s currently a bit long sighted (despite a family full of myopics on both sides - lots of us with high prescriptions).

DS1 also seems to like wearing (dirty) glasses

Loonoon · 06/05/2018 09:04

I used to be very shortsighted (prescriptions of -11 and -13). My vision was pretty good with contact lenses and glasses. Then a few years ago I had multi focal lens implants. I still marvel at what I can now see and how much I must have missed for the first 50 years of my life.

And then I got hearing aids - another wow moment! Truly I am middle aged and bionic.

AviatorShades · 06/05/2018 09:05

I remember the first time I had glasses. I was about 13 and I'd gone with my mum to choose the frames (NHS ones, pink. Naice!). Walked home and loved everything I could see so clearly now. Then,once home and in the small sitting room, I was horrified. WHY did they choose that wallpaper? Repeat pattern,which made the room close in on me. Felt claustrophobic.
Still, generally,I was pleased.
Until my spec-wearing dad came home from work.
"welcome to the Club,Four Eyes!" he said.
From that time on, my glasses were in my school bag until I was in lessons.
WTF!

IJustHadToNameChange · 06/05/2018 09:05

When I got my first pair of glasses, I had to keep waggling them up and down, on and off to see the amazing difference.

I thought I had a bad back, which cleared up almost completely after I got specs. 😳

Aragog · 06/05/2018 09:06

They are, though I had laser eye surgery two years ago and that really blows my mind. I though my sight with lenses and glasses was good, but after the laser - wow! All round, full non blurred sight any time of the day or night. Amazing.

Dh ordered his first pair of glasses yesterday, for reading. He hadn't realised how bad his sight was getting til he had them checked.

MuffinMad · 06/05/2018 09:06

I have worn glasses now for quite a while. I'm short sighted so need them for TV etc.

I have just treated myself to a pair of prescription sunglasses and what a difference they have made!
I don't drive, but when in the car everything looks so much clearer. I love them.

Should have got some a while ago!

😎

Jamiefraserskilt · 06/05/2018 09:07

It's like getting a new Hoover. You don't realise how bad the old one was!

TamiTayorismyparentingguru · 06/05/2018 09:13

I’m really jealous. My distance vision is pretty pathetic and everything is slightly blurry - I don’t remember what it’s like to read a road sign or words off a big screen and for them not to have shadows/blurry edges. I also don’t remember what it’s like to read things at a distance easily/without it taking my brain time to catch up.

I also have floaters in my eyes so I regularly feel like I’m looking through a frosted windscreen.

Unfortunately nothing can be done for either issue. The floaters are normal and will get worse with age, but just unfortunate that I have some fairly big ones already in my (late) 30s.

Nothing can be done for my distance vision - it’s like I have 2 lazy eyes but as they weren’t corrected when I was a child, they never developed properly (your eyes keep developing until about the age of 8) and it’s a couple decades too late to do anything about it.

For now I just carry on as normal and things are just a bit harder than they should be. Once my eyes get to the point that I am disqualified for driving I will likely need to stop as we have seen that lenses don’t make any difference to me. I’m really hoping that is a long way off yet.

Moral of the story - take your kids for regular eye tests when they are little - esp before the age of 8.

butterfly990 · 06/05/2018 09:17

I love watching the videos of the babies who are given glasses for the first time.

Also have you seen the colour blind glasses? They are amazing

PaintedHorizons · 06/05/2018 09:17

We sometimes forget how lucky we are. Millions of people in the world who have poor sight or lose focus through ageing have no recourse to glasses and it limits what they can do. Yes indeed - they are magic!

My lovely, clever daughter got glasses at 7 and when she said "I can see the whiteboard now" I realised how hard she'd been struggling and how much that had held her back. I'd had no idea she couldn't see distance! (I'd also had no idea that my son was almost deaf until he had a hearing test. Post surgery he wallked in to the school playground and said "Mummy - I can hear all the children!!")

Kids don't know they are different at that stage so test are crucial for picking up sight and hearing difficulties.

Wickedstepmum67 · 06/05/2018 09:23

It's deeply alarming looking in the mirror whilst wearing my reading glasses 😮 Too much detail!

Andrewofgg · 06/05/2018 09:26

Two years ago at age 64 I had my cataracts done and suddenly everything was bright and clear and colourful.

And last year I had vitrectomy ops to eliminate the floaters.

Bloody miracles.

AsAProfessionalFekko · 06/05/2018 09:27

They suck. As my sight gets worse I have more problems seeing and one eye is deteriorating faster so I'm a bit lopsided these days when I take them off.

I know it would be worse but still, it sucks! I remind myself if I was a caveman I've been eaten by a dinosaur by now (yes I know they weren't around at the same time - unless you count birds and crocodiles).

Dynamitewithalaserbeam · 06/05/2018 09:28

I agree, but there are downsides.

When I got my first glasses I discovered my bathroom, particularly the tile grouting, was filthy

TokenBritPoshOfCourse · 06/05/2018 09:30

I didn’t realise I needed glasses, and only had an eye test because the kids were.

It was a real shock just how crap my vision was compared to with glasses. I’d been missing out on so much!

WineAndTiramisu · 06/05/2018 09:32

I remember being amazed by the leaves on the trees mainly, I never realised people could actually see them!

Figmentofmyimagination · 06/05/2018 09:38

tami I have the same problem as you but I did see an optician regularly from age 7. My prescription is over -8 in each eye but this can be corrected with lenses. My real problem is that even with glasses on my vision is a bit like an impressionist painting and some colours, especially dark colours, get mixed up. In my 20s I had lots of tests as this stuff can be a sign of more serious neurological conditions - like MS I think, but the consultant diagnosed hereditary optic atrophy - an inadequate blood supply to the optic nerve? Anyway the good news is that it's been stable since my 20s - 30+ years and also, it could have been a lot worse, as it can cause hereditary blindness. My dad is believed to have had optic atrophy too. He never wore glasses because they made no difference but like me, he wasn't allowed to drive.

AintNobodyHereButUsChickens · 06/05/2018 09:38

I can’t see a bloody thing without mine! I certainly can’t drive without them! Back in November I broke my glasses and had to live in prescription sunglasses for a week while I waited for my new normal ones :o it was the most dullest, dreary, rainy week you could imagine, I felt like a right prat walking round in sunglasses :o

PlatypusPie · 06/05/2018 09:46

I was already a glasses wearer when I got my first pair of contact lenses, at a time when they were still quite a novelty and eyewateringly ( ha!) expensive. The optician sent me out to wander around for a while to test them and I remember looking up at the individual leaves in wonderment, being able to see so clearly and without the sensation of a pane of glass between me and the world in focus.

Blit · 06/05/2018 09:47

My brother wore glasses, but wouldn't wear them when dating, so he got contacts. Terrible decision apparently, he thought he'd been dating good looking women.......yes he's a creep,

Glumglowworm · 06/05/2018 09:48

YANBU

I remember when I first got glasses I suddenly realised our curtains had a pattern on and weren’t just blobs of colour

I now where all day all night contact lenses and it took a while to get used to going to sleep able to see! For a decade, taking off my glasses had been the last thing I did at night and was obviously a signal for my brain that it was bedtime!

PerkingFaintly · 06/05/2018 09:51

YANBU. At all.

Still remember my first pair some unreasonable number of decades ago.

I remember being amazed by the leaves on the trees mainly, I never realised people could actually see them!

This! And the tiles on roofs! And number plates on cars. OMG so much world to see!

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