Children & Eyeglasses

I had a devil of a time with my son, who was about this same age and level of sight. I think his glasses went into his desk in September and got taken home in June.

That's an expensive thing to lose for us. If he breaks or loses them I don't know if we'll have the $$ to replace/fix them. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

UGH!

I started wearing glasses at about that age and never really had much trouble with them. However my son was really hard on glasses at that age. We paid extra to have free replacement if anything happened to them and we used it more than once!

My son (who is also 8 ) ahs had glasses since being 2 year ols and has only ever broke 1 pair.
When your son realises seeing is so much easier with his glasses on he will want to wear them.
My son wears his glasses ALL THE TIME, He even goes to sleep in them (and no they dont fall off!)
He wears them for karate, he has prescription goggles for swimming. He has a squint which is nearly corrected but is very longsighted too.
If he takes his glasses off my youngest son (who is 16 months) doesn't recognise them!
and at school there are so many kids wearing them that its no big deal nowadays, when I was at school we used to call people with glasses terrible names but there is none of that nowadays!

Both my daughters have been wearing glasses for a while now. Riley was 4 or 5 when she started, and in Kindergarten, Sylvia was probably 6 or 7 and in 1st or 2nd grade.
YES, he will lose them on occasion - last Thursday, I actually FOUND Riley's glasses on a baseball field; yay me - but he is older than either of my girls so hopefully not as often. They will also break, so find a sympathetic eye repair person. (Ours doesn't even charge me most of the time because Riley's got him wrapped around her finger :) and buy a spare set to keep out of his reach for the inevitable times when his are missing/broken. It will be very frustrating for the first 6 months or so (once, I think it was Sylvia's glasses broke the very same day we'd gotten them), but it does get better. I'm sure this will jinx it, but we actually haven't had to have them repaired for a good 6 months or so now!

My son, 5 and 1/2, was just told yesterday he needs glasses for nearsightedness, so I can relate to your situation Brandy. Iironically, my son takes karate and I have a daughter who also is desperate to wear glasses, but she's only 3 and a half, so it's more a "want to be like Mommy" kind of thing I think. Anyway, I really appreciate your message and the responses from everyone as this first time event has thrown me for a little loop. I was lucky in that my myopia did not occur until I was 22 and I was able to wear contacts right off the bat (but now wear mostly glasses at 41 yrs old). Frankly, I can't help feel upset that he will have to now wear glasses throughout his entire childhood. He's one of those kids that is such a free spirit, really full of energy, athletic beyond his years, really dynamic in many ways... and unfortunately I was raised during the 70's and 80's where having glasses was kind of stigma, so it's hard for me to shake that although I am very thankful that today there is much less of that as lots of kids wears glasses and very cool ones at that! My son is not the type who looks after his things well unfortunately (hard as I have tried), and is very hard headed and crafty, so I imagine I may have a fight on my hands in getting him to wear them, and take of them well. I am going in with the most positive outlook I can muster and my daughter's wanting them as well may just be the key to getting him to think he's the special one in having to wear them. I was told that he needed to wear them all the time. He has a -.5 in each eye and an astigmatism in the left. I need to re-ask about this as I certainly do not want him to try and wear them during karate class or at any other times when not necessary. I will take aboard the suggestions about having a back up pair and trying to find a shop with a replacement policy as I feel quite sure we'll be needing it too. Thanks for the help everyone... and keep us posted Brandy on how it goes!

Well he's had his glasses since this past Saturday. So far, so good. He wore them to karate class and the instructor said it wouldn't be a problem during regular classes, but when they do stuff like sparring or partner work he'd probably need to take them off to avoid potential accidents. He's no so nearsighted that he won't be ok with stuff like that. Unfortunately that's how I started out as well and I didn't wear my glasses unless I had to (which mostly mean in the classroom or to see the tv clearly). And now my eyes are so bad that if I take my contacts out pretty much all I see is fuzzy colors. I don't know how much of that is because I squinted rather than wear my first pair of glasses so I'm encouraging him to wear his most of the time. He's gotten used to seeing with them now and says he gets a headache or feels dizzy if he takes them off. I, too, get that feeling if I try to walk around without glasses or contacts. I hope that he doesn't get as bad as me or worse. I didn't need glasses until the 7th grade and he's starting out in the 2nd. Check out my images section and there's a picture of him with his new glasses on!

My son wears glasses too.