Keep an Eye Out: Adventures in Keeping Glasses in One Piece

"DS got glasses at 2 years old. We reinforced that he had to wear them for about a month, then he was fine. We get the cheap ones at Walmart, cuz he is a 5 yo boy and there is nothing on this earth that will keep him from being hard on his glasses. Walmart fixes them for free when he breaks them in less then a year. I would die from a heart attack if they lasted a whole year."

"Oh, I'm sure his glasses are just FINE..."

I wrote this to reassure a fellow mama about her young child getting glasses "already." And it's true, but a very brief look at the situation. The whole situation involves some very delicate maneuvering around family perogatives.

You see, bug does well with his glasses, but he is still a little boy with all the tendencies of a little boy to break EVERYTHING! So we get inexpensive glasses from Walmart where we can get them repaired every time they break.

We still have to buy a pair every year or so. This is where it gets tricky. See, once I picked up a pair of glasses from memory - Bug was not with me for sizing. They fit perfectly.

Enter, the problem. Now, others who contribute to the glasses adventure think that they can do the same. And they FAIL. The glasses were WAAAY too big. However, they were what we had, and not being wealthy, we used them. This means that Bug had glasses that fell down on his nose (until he started to grow into them, at least).

They aren't too big,
his FACE is too SMALL!

So these "others" took Bug to the eye doctor (because of his particular issues, he sees a specialist 4 hours away) and were informed that Bug was looking over his glasses (not often) and he would have to get a patch if he kept it up (YAY for fear-tactics).

So they went and bought a VERY expensive, name-brand pair of wire-rims. These were broken within two months... and not from Walmart, so we weren't even sure they would fix them (at no charge - remember, not wealthy).

Hey, this is what the top of
Bug's dresser looks like...

Long story, short... Walmart has fixed all Bug's glasses, we now have three pair of glasses for him, only MAMA can judge Bug's size, and name-brands don't protect against 5-year-olds/acts of Gods.

The lesson I've taken from this? I may despise Walmart with all my heart (more on that later), but they get my business for glasses. Well, Bug's glasses... only cuz this site doesn't have kid's glasses.
(Update (7/9/12): that site now DOES include children's sizes!)