Why I'll probably never understand children...

[quasigeostrophy]

...and it may be a good thing I'm not a parent myself:

One of my employees, B, just got in after taking his two daughters to eye appointments. K1 (9 years old) does not need glasses. K2 (5 years old), does, and picked out some cool "Blues Clues" frames or something like that. B relayed to me how K1 had a nearly 20-minute fit over this ("But I wanted to have glasses!"). Sheesh! :-)

Comments

[ame-chan.livejournal.com]

We had a similar experience with my youngest who had talked herself into a pair of Harry Potter glasses, and then ended up not needing them.

She cried for DAYS over wanting Harry Potter glasses.

[firinel.livejournal.com]

I'm frightened they have character glasses like that for children. Marketting, ugh *Shiver*.

It's likely Riordon will need them, and she can get whatever kind she wants that do not use peer pressure and marketting trends to appeal to her. :P (When I was a kid I picked out bright bleu plastic frames, and loved them to bits. the pair after that were bright red plastic frames. I looked like a dork, but I didn't mind wearing themb ecause I'd picked them out.)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

In adults, personally, I love how the right pair of glasses can make someone look, and I prefer my own appearance with them to without nowadays. I'm just surprised, I guess, that children would want them - when I was a child, those children with glasses got more teasing than those without.

(And I agree about the whole marketing tie-in with glasses - Ugh!)

[windsea.livejournal.com]

LOL. I went through this with Kate when she was 7. "But Mommmmeeee, I so want to wear glasses!!!! Can't I have a pair anyway?"

WTF????

[krasota.livejournal.com]

I always liked glasses on folks, but I didn't beg for them. My parents both wore them and everyone I knew who was really *intelligent* wore them. When I was seven, I had my first eye exam and ended up with my first pair. After that, I typically needed stronger lenses twice a year.

Mom just made sure I had the darkest photogray/brown lenses (darken in sunlight), which looked really dorky, but I only see that in retrospect. ;) She tried to make sure I got plastic frames and the lightest lenses possible, plus hinges on the lower half of the frames, which helped keep them from being so heavy. She let me do things like get little unicorns engraved in the lower corner of the lenses (it was the 80s, glasses and lenses were HUGE), but I had to reuse frames til I outgrew them or they broke.

As I got older, I disliked how easy they were to break (I played volleyball and was a tomboy)... and I wanted peripheral vision. When I was 12, my optometrist started suggesting contacts to slow down the deterioration of my vision. When I was 13, I got my first pair of soft lenses. A few years later, I switched to two-week disposables, which I still use today. I slept in them until a few years ago, when aging made my eyes too dry to do that anymore. I miss waking up with perfect vision, but I can deal. I have peripheral vision when I wear my contacts, so it's all good.

The only consequence I can see is that I MUST wear sunglasses if I'm outdoors--even on cloudy days. Five-six years of photogray + wearing contacts early has made my eyes super sensitive. Fortunately, I can usually remove the sunlasses inside.

I wasn't mocked *that* much for my sunglasses. Being called four-eyes didn't bother me, so most kids didn't do it. They preferred to say things that did bother me, like mispronouncing my name or mocking me for being smarter than they were.

That's okay. The ones who were the worst have mostly grown up and apologized. I didn't suffer that much and am always shocked when someone comes up to me and says something apologetic after all these years.

Anyhow, I find eyeglasses really sexy. I love it when boy wears his.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I still am very glad I've not been given the option or especially the requirement to wear contacts. The thought of something touching my eyeballs is still a huge squick for me. They aren't available to correct the convergence problem I have anyway - I have very very little focus correction in my lenses, but the prisms are huge to correct for convergence error. In fact, I have to take them off when I need to see distances (movie theatres, lectures, driving), because they blur my distant vision.

I find eyeglasses really sexy.

Seeble!