To have spend 75pounds on lenses for ds 7

[dentydown]

Ds 7 has quite bad eye sight. His prescription is +6.50 and +7.00, and he has to wear his glasses all the time.
I paid 75 pounds for ultra thin lenses for him, because the optician warned me standard lenses would be very thick and would stand out. (We have some of his previous weaker prescriptions and they are about 7mm thick and stand out 4mm from the frame)
We went through the options with the dispensing optician and basically ds is going to have ultra thin lenses, specially made and fitted (will take longer - 5 days) and they should appear like normal glasses.
He has broken his glasses before, but they just swapped the lenses out at no extra cost.
DP is saying they saw me coming. It’s christmas every day and it’s too much to spend for a child.
My argument is, I had the money there (I put it away for this), he wears them everyday, he’s 7 and he doesn’t want great thick heavy lenses on his face. He has broken his glasses frames in the past, but it was a case of popping the lenses out and fitting them in a new frame at no extra cost.
Dp spent 300 pounds on glasses for him self and he has half the strength of ds!

I'm another saying your DP is being unfair. I'm very short sighted. When I was a student I couldn't afford to pay to have the lenses thinned, thankfully NHS style specs were in fashion at the time so I bought chunky frames. They were so heavy I hated them, left big indentations behind my ears and on my nose. As soon as I graduated I bought a much lighter pair. No way would I inflict thick lenses on a 7 year old.

That isn’t expensive for glasses of that strength. You defo made the right choice. I’ve got a similar level of prescription and always get the ultra thin lenses in my main pair and thin in my spare pair and sunglasses. They are very uncomfortable with standard lenses.

My eye sight is about that too. I get the most expensive thinned down lenses and I would definitely do so for my children too. It’s definitely worth it and I think that’s a really good price!

DS has a similar prescription and me and OH regard his eye health as a priority. Our optician has said that DS should wear his glasses all the time, as it will lead to better vision for him in the future, so we will do whatever we can to make him comfortable.

We are finding that as he needs bigger glasses, the lenses are also getting bigger and heavier, so the lenses do need thinning as they start to fall down his face (plus leave indentation on his nose).

I absolutely think you are doing the right thing. I know it's annoying when the glasses get broken, but I guess that's just one of those things you have to deal with when you have a child that has bad eyes.

Quick tip - ASDA opticians do prescription sunglasses for £15 for children.

Yanbu in the slightest.

I have very different prescriptions in each eye so I get the weaker lens as standard and the strong one (-4) as ultrathin and it's still a good bit thicker than the other one.

A seven year old still has a small and delicate face and lenses that strong are really heavy.

Besides the aesthetics, it's simply a case of gravity making thinner lenses a necessity, because thick heavy ones slide down little noses and they either end up looking over the top of them and thus being totally pointless or they are forever pushing them back up their nose.

They hurt your ears after a while too.

Your dp is being an arse.

I also get my ds's glasses thinned, he's a - 3 but has very delicate features (and is only 5), and fork out for prescription sunglasses. It's expensive but if we have to live on beans on toast and omelette for a month so ds can see comfortably it's worth every bloody penny.

Don’t get him thick glasses! i have really bad eyesight, my glasses are a lot more expensive (add a 0 at the end). its necessary, thick glasses are heavy, especially for s child, and thd chance ending up with pressure sores on nose and ears is high.

YANBU - my son had ultra thins from the age of 3, otherwise they would have been little bottle bottoms - he is +8 so a crazy prescription.

You should get an NHS voucher contribution towards the cost - did you get that?

£75 in the grand scheme of things for your son's eye sight and comfort is not even 20 p a day if those glasses last him a year.

Tell your DH to do one on this particular occasion!

When i was little, superthin lenses didn’t really exist. i have permanent scarring behind my ears and on the bridge of my nose. it looks horrible and is really uncomfortable and itchy at times. don’t do that to your son for the sake if £30 or so!

Yanbu. My dd has a high minus prescription and i pay over £100 top up for thin lenses and frames that she likes.
Crikey, wearing glasses as a kid is a pita, if i can make it easier, why wouldn't I?
I'm coloured after watching my sister grow up with jam jar lenses and pink nhs frames in the 80's. My mum was a lp so no Money for thinning.
Her beautiful big brown eyes looked like raisins under the lenses and she had a terrible time of it.

Specsavers do a free second pair so my daughter has free sunglasses.

I need every thinning/coating going (over -10) so I dont get a free pair but get some knocked off my one pair and get reaction lenses. Still expensive due to all the thinning.

I know areas vary but Ove tried 2 independents in our area and returned to Specsavers as they were better by miles, especially with children. They just saw more of them I think! They had more options, spent longer on testing eye health etc. I do get areas vary but as someone who wanted to try different ones to get the best once my kid needed glasses I've been so impressed with Specsavers.

And a free pair of sunglasses is a plus!

That good OP about the driving, I have very poor vision in one eye from a childhood squint, other eye is normal, just need glasses for driving as a bit shortsighted. I can drive a car but would not be allowed to drive a bus or lorry because of bad eye, not that I would want to drive one anyway

Does he see the hospital ophthalmologist?

Dd has a similar prescription to your son and until she was discharged, we would get the glasses completely free as there is a specific code for hospital prescriptions which covers around £200 plus. No child's glasses would cost that much!

And now dd has been discharged, we do pay for the thinning because, as you say, the prescription makes the glasses very heavy and they slide down which doesn't benefit them at all. My optician did both pairs for £70 though.

Did your DS inherit his poor sight from your DH? You could argue that he is at least 50% liable for the cost of his specs.

Obviously YANBU.

My DD has the same prescription and is 8. We have just paid similar amount for thinned lenses - both of us were in total agreement and they look great. She is really pleased which is the important thing. Good decision OP!

No question, we've paid extra for DS' lenses to be thinned out.
I remember the nastiness when I was a child, worse when hardly any others wore glasses. When I was working, the first thing I did was to pay for thinner lenses and the difference in weight on my face was amazing. No way am I putting a child through that