Do you wear glasses? Please share your memory of wearing them for the first time and your tips on getting them for the first time with Specsavers - you could win £250 NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

The team at Specsavers would love to hear your story of when you first put on a pair of glasses and realised what you were missing - did you have that "wow" moment? How life changing it is to have your vision corrected for the first time? They'd also love to hear your tips for other people on wearing specs for the first time - whether they are for a long or short sighted prescription.

Specsavers say "when you choose Specsavers Opticians you are in safe hands - as shown by a YouGov 2014 survey*, Specsavers has been voted the most trusted optician in the UK. We always completely follow the guidelines set out by the General Optical Council - this means that all our glasses are professionally fitted under the supervision of a qualified optician. Every pair of glasses is individually made to meet your vision requirements and lifestyle needs - your dispenser will check that your new glasses fit properly and that you have clear, comfortable vision, making any necessary adjustments to ensure a perfect fit – making getting that first pair a easy!"

Share your thoughts and everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £250 voucher from here

Please note Specsavers may use your comments - anon of course - on their pages on MN, on their social media or possibly elsewhere - please only post if you're happy with this.

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

I was 13 when I got mine. I'm short sighted and couldn't read the blackboard in school.

We were in a small school and there was only one other girl in my year who wore glasses - she had had those awful pink NHS ones for as long as I'd known her and she was long sighted so her eyes looked massive. She got teased. A lot.

I was embarrassed at my gold rim frames (there wasn't much choice as far as I can remember) and even though I could see far better when I wore them, I still tried not to and kept copying my friends' work. It was only once my mum wrote to my form tutor to tell them that I had glasses and that they should be worn in class that I started getting told off for not wearing them.

There is so much choice for people of all ages these days, and many more people wearing glasses that I hope my dc won't feel the same if they need to wear glasses.

I was 10 years old when I had my first glasses. I was given a routine sight test at school and referred to an optician.
I collected my glasses on the 8th May 1976. We were going on holiday that day...I was amazed at everything having a sharp edge to it!
Now aged 48 I now need distance and reading glasses...I think I will have to give in to varifocals ..

I got my first glasses at 18 when I arrived at university and wanted to be able to sit at the back of lectures of 600 people with my friends.

I know when I need new glasses as I can't read the menus on the TV with the previous prescription.

My main suggestion for getting glasses is to take someone with you to help you make a decision.

I have fab titanium glasses now. They were pricy frames and look a bit "statementy" but they are indestructible, which has been very useful with a toddler. They came from a high end independent optician - I couldn't find anything as good in a chain optician.

I remember very clearly getting mine. I was seven and for a while had been losing concentration at school and in trouble Le for mucking round at the back. Finally I went up to a class where a teacher thought might not be able to see clearly. I couldn't copy properly from the board and just thought it was the same for everyone - used to copy from my friend. She moved me to the front and it was a bit better. She recommended to my parents I get an eye test.

When i got them it was like a different world full of sharp edges and colours. I was suddenly more alert in class and could keep up.

They were horrible 19 70s NHS big pink specs.

I wear contact lenses now.

My mum is very long sighted and dad is very short sighted.

Back in the 1970s, when I was about 8/9, my school had to tell my parents that a sight test would be a good idea. It had simply not occurred to either of them that my brother and I might inherit sight issues.

My teacher had tried sitting me at different places around the class as I kept saying I couldn't see the board.

My mum had even been telling me to sit back from the TV as I'd "hurt my eyes" and still didn't twig.

I was eventually tested and I remember being astonished at how clear everything looked once I got those first glasses. I was soooooooo happy not to be crashing into things any more because I hadn't seen them.

I turned out to be incredibly short sighted. like dad. I made sure my own children were tested from an early age, one DC needs glasses, but it was picked up quickly due to regular testing.

Which is the thing I'd recommend to any parent. Regular sight tests for children, which are free. Please don't let children suffer like I did. I should have had glasses much earlier.

Great big plastic things that felt like they weighed as much as my head. Nowadays they tend to be so elegant that ther's a pair to suit any individual child.

I got my first pair when I was 11. I hadn't noticed anything wrong with my sight, but the school optician service told me I was short sighted so I was taken to the 'proper' optician and promptly given a horrible pair of NHS glasses like these ones - I was absolutely furious and horrified in equal measure. Despite my best intention to keep them buried in my schoolbag never to see the light of day, my Mum wrote a letter to the teacher telling her that I had glasses and asked her to ensure I wore them. I sulked for days, and hated every second I had to wear them. I may actually still be a bit scarred, psychologically, emotionally and every other sort of ally there is.

When my Gran died she left my DSis and I some money and I bought a pair of contact lenses with my share - that was 30 years ago, and I've only now (at 46) found a pair of glasses I actually like. Believe it or not, they actually came from Specsavers and the frames cost me a bargainous £25. Result!

these ones

I was 10 and waiting for the bus with my mum. When she suddenly piped up this next one is ours.... I could sort of make out a green blur ... So I asked how she knew that particular one was ours. "It's the 17 and that's the one we want from this stop" was her reply. "What dyou mean 17? Do buses have numbers?" This was news to me! She asked was I joking and when I said no, told me to tell her when I could see the number. Now bearing in mind this was 1978 and liverpool buses had huge 18" numbers she started panicking when I could only see the number when the bus stopped at the stop. I was taken straight off that bus and into a local opticians. I left with a pair of black boys nhs frames which werent quite the right prescription but WOW to me they where amazing. Did you know you're supposed to be able to see people on the other side of the road? I was chuffed until I realized Id have to wear them to school the next monday! My first pair with my prescription were pink nhs plastic ones and since then I've had 100s of different pairs from huge Deidre types In the late 80s to tiny metal framed one.

I've gone to specsavers since I started paying for my glasses as the choice and value for money are brilliant. The staff and over the years the equipment they use has changed so much. But I trust my local store to know my eyes and know if anything has changed. Now I've got vari focals and although they took a bit of getting used to I'm happy with the recommendation to go with them. From being so short sighted I can't see my own feet it's odd to be able to take my specs off to do things.

I had my first glasses last year aged 39. I was diagnosed with IIH about 6 months previously after a serious deterioration in my eyesight. Although I am now blind in one eye, my glasses have helped with the astigmatism I have my other eye and are tinted and reactive as I have developed light sensitivity. When I put them on for the first time I could see leaves on the trees clearly. Wearing them for work reduced the crippling headaches I had been suffering.

My tip for choosing glasses is to take someone you trust with you to give their opinion. Also clean your glasses regularly, it's surprising how dirty they get.

I got my first pair when I was around 2....pink NHS ones with wire legs....I've still got them!! My tip for longsighted people is don't go for frames with big lenses....it just magnifies the world even more ( or maybe that was just what it was like back in the 70's!!!)

I got my first glasses this year. It took me a while to decide which ones to get and when I finally found the right ones I LOVED them and still do. Now that I'm used to them I think I look way better with the glasses than without! Obviously it was also nice to be able to read street signs from the other side of the road, PowerPoint in meetings etc... Made me realise just how dodgy my eyesight had become in the few months before getting them!

I was 20 and almost overnight noticed I could not see distance items. It was scary. I was hugely relieved to have my vision corrected but totally frustrated to find I have a very small head and styles are quite limited to me if I don't want a minion or Hello Kitty on the frames. I have quite flat features too and trying to find specs that suit is more stressful than getting a haircut.

NHS specs in the early 80's. I remember the pink and brown ones too. I could read the blackboard with them on, but I also stood out as the only child in glasses. I remember that more.

I was in my last year of primary school and got tested in the school one day, then taken to choose my NHS specs. The choice was pink, blue or black - all Harry Potter style. I chose black. I remember a very nice woman telling me that if I wore them every day my sight would get better. 'Great' I thought ' I will wear them all the time and by the time I am a grown up I won't have to wear them anymore. Being able to see stuff, and sit at the back of the class instead of squinting at the front was bloom in' marvellous but It coincided with the decision to cut my almost bum length hair into a short crop. I was teased continually for looking like a boy - though I was proud of choosing the black ones.

Many years later, at the age of 35, I strolled into a garage to pay for my petrol and the man behind the counter pointed, laughed and said 'ooh Harry Potter'. Some things never change.

I was about 11, I think I had needed them for years, my eyesight was terrible, I remember before getting them being really clumsy, falling over a huge - and I mean huge boulder as I didn't see it. Asking other kids what the teacher was writing on the board, I just thought everyone was the same.

I asked the school nurse myself to test my eyes and she sent a letter home. The day I actually got my glasses I couldn't believe what I had been missing - the detail on trees, the raindrops on windows, it was like a whole new world.

I did get laser surgery but I'm back full circle to glasses again and this time I don't mind, Harry Potter has made it cool!

Nothing but bad memories for me, I had to wear awful NHS wire round the ear jobs at the age of 8, got teased at school, they used to break, don't remember having a "wow I can see" moment at all. I was liberated by contact lenses at the age of 17 and have never worn glasses regularly again. I'm 47 now and still detest wearing glasses, I hope to be able to wear contact lenses for the rest of my life.

As for tips for choosing them for the first time, mine would be to consult a dispensing optometrist who can help you choose the best frames for your prescription, face and lifestyle.

I got my first glasses at 14, my prescription was so weak that the optician didn't really think I needed them but I thought glasses were cool so I was having them. I kept this pair until I was 19, without having any check ups, until I realised I was squinting at things and wearing my old glasses didn't help.
Finally I went to specsavers (yes :)) and got an updated prescription and a pair of Jarvis cocker inspired black plastic frames and wore them all the time. I loved these glasses and the feeling of having correct eyesight after it had crept up on me so slowly was fantastic. I have been a specsavers customer ever since.

I was seven. I said "someone's drawn black lines around the edges of everything" I was already -3 and it transformed my life.

I was about 14 and strangely it was considered quite cool at school to have glasses. I remember someone borrowing them in science class because he couldn't read the board. I think he got some soon after seeing the light with mine!

I first had to have glasses when I was seven. Words cannot express how much I hated them. I cried my eyes out. My younger sister and I both had our eyes tested at the same time, and when it was time to go I was crying because I needed glasses and she was crying because she didn't (nearly 30 years later she still has perfect eyesight ).

I wore my glasses part-time until I was 11 or 12, when I decided I really needed to wear them all the time. I once forgot them when I went to the cinema which ruined my enjoyment of the film!
At 12 I tried contact lenses which I didn't get on with at first, but really wish I'd had them when going to waterparks on holiday as a teenager. I finally made the switch to soft lenses at 18 then GPs at 24. I still hate glasses but am not brave enough to have laser eye surgery. It has also cost me a fortune over the years! I do get free eye tests as I have complex lenses and usually a generous £12 NHS voucher.

I was about 13 or so and I realised I couldn't see the hymn numbers on the board at school from where we were sat on the balcony.

Turns out I was very slightly short-sighted. We went to a lovely independent opticians who helped me choose some brightly coloured huge plastic glasses (this was the 90s!). I just loved them and wore them every day.

I remember wearing them to school the next day and finally being able to properly see the blackboard and see friends' faces across the playing field.

If you're getting glasses for the first time, don't be afraid to keep going back until they're right. I had the super thin lenses on a pair of glasses I bought but they stopped me seeing depth. I'd put my hand out to grab something and miss! I went back to the opticians (SpecSavers actually) and I had different lenses put in. Apparently I'm no good with the super thin fancy stuff. Don't be afraid to get them well fitted and exactly what you need. If you're wearing them every day, it's definitely worth it.