Do you have any advice for parents of young kids with eyeglasses?

Get two pairs, at least. I know that’s a cost, but it’s worth it.

You will not regret the insurance.
A second pair for the forget part. Price out the cost of prescription sports goggles to determine if it is viable option when on the court. 8 years old might be a bit young to justify it as they are not at the higher level of aggression on the court, but you will find out the first few games. Certainly a strap to hold them on during play.

He’s 8, you can expect him to lose, break or forget his glasses most likely.
All you can do is remind him a lot and if something goes wrong don’t lay a big guilt trip on him. Hell, I’m almost 52 and I lose my glasses almost every day, sometimes when they are on my head. That’s why I have 4 pairs of them all over my house, in my purse, in my car. lol

I didn’t start to need glasses until I was in my 40s, and then I needed them always for reading and other “close work”. I buy myself cheap reading glasses of the type found in any drugstore or discount store, and I buy multiple pairs to keep everywhere I might need them. I have a pair that I keep on my bed for nighttime reading, two pairs in my computer bag (in case one gets lost or broken while I travel), two pairs in the car (ditto), and a pair that I carry with me. I also have another pair with a lanyard that I wear around my neck at home and when I go shopping. I even have bifocal sunglasses that I keep in the car, and boy are those handy sometimes!

I wouldn’t attempt to make a child follow hard and fast rules that work for me – unless he was exactly like me, but I don’t follow hard and fast rules about possessions in any case. I would suggest ways to minimize loss and damage, obviously, but as to how to get along with this necessary option in his life, that’s going to be for him to figure out. Save yourself the grief of attempting to police his handling of his glasses.

It does depends. Does he like his glasses? When I first got mine, I hated them and tried to leave them at school. My parents, however, talked to my teacher and she made sure that I left with them everyday.
I think that the second pair is a good bet. If he gets new glasses next year or whenever, then you can just keep the old ones as the backup pair.

If he’s playing basketball get him safey glasses or the googles. I’ve got a ton of scars from elbows and stuff.

Buy a couple more pairs, and/or a pair of sports glasses online. Prices are one-sixth the cost in the real world. I’ve used Zenni and Coastal and there are others, too. It really works well. In fact, the glasses I got online were better than the ones I got in the real world.

It’s ridiculous. Also, you can get real world optical stores to do adjustments on the glasses for free.

After an eye doctor appt. this Friday we will officially have 2 kids in glasses…and a third might need them soon, too.
The two girls are EXTREMELY careful with their belongings (including glasses)—but our son…I would have the exact same concerns about forgetting his glasses at home, etc.

My daughter has a moderately strong prescription for nearsightedness but she NEVER wears her glasses to gym or on the playground. Honestly, if he can manage to play basketball without his classes, that’s best—otherwise you might want to look into prescription sports goggles for Basketball. (My dad wears those.) They protect the eye from elbows, are shatterproof and can have corrective lenses in them.

I have a friend who curates this wonderful blog: http://littlefoureyes.com/ and I recommend getting tips there.

There are glasses you can get with break resistant materials. I forget what they are called, but the glasses I have now you can almost tie them in a knot and they will return to the correct shape. You may have to pop the lenses back into the frames occasionally.

They cost more initially, but it ends up being cheaper in the long run.

I know there’s an Arthur book about getting glasses, maybe it covers Arthur being responsible with them? I’m sure there are others that are good for an eight-year-old to suggest responsibility outside of parents’ influence!

@TheIntern55 He likes the glasses, so unless that changes I don’t think he’ll want to leave them on purpose! I’ll keep my fingers crossed!

@wundayatta Those websites look great! I think we will certainly use one of them to get a less expensive back-up pair.

@sliceswiththings That’s a great suggestion for a book. I’ll look into it.

@everyone: Thanks for the ideas, suggestions, and different perspectives!

I think we’ll send him to school with a case for his glasses so he can leave them in the classroom for gym and recess. I’ll pick up a strap for basketball, because he will need the glasses for that. Not to see the hoop, but to be able to “read” other players on the court if they aren’t very close to him. Goggles will probably be a better idea for the long run, which I’ll look into.

That’s the age when I got mine, too… I actually forgot to wear them to school rather than forgetting to wear them home. My teacher was understanding, luckily! (Actually, she had glasses too, now that I’m thinking about it!) Mine used to break at the nosepiece so I had to do the nerd thing with the adhesive tape. If his sight isn’t too bad at this point, maybe he can play basketball without them?
Realistically, they are going to be forgotten sometimes, and most likely broken….

The glass in his glasses is safety glass. It is required by law in juvenile prescription glasses. Be persistent with having him take his glasses off at night and put them on his nightstand before he closes his little eyes for sleep and put them on when he awakens. They shouldn’t come off for any other reason that I can see except to take a shower or bath.

They make a strap that you put on your glasses for sports or other activities to keep them from slipping off your head. They come in a variety of styles.

http://www.amazon.com/Flents-Sports-Band-Elastic-Eyeglass/dp/B000KRKJ0Y

While I do not have a child in glasses now, I know that it will be inevitable for her. Both my wife and I are nearsighted, with me being VERY nearsighted, to the point where I am useless without my glasses. I would stress the importance of #1: the glasses help the child see better, and it will be more comfortable for him to see the blackboard, tv, movies, etc. #2: you stated that he likes his glasses, so that is a plus, and you want to stress the fact that it is very important to take good care of things that you like, and stress how good he looks in the glasses, which will incent him to want to wear them. Hope I helped.

If your son is moderately nearsighted he probably needs to be wearing them all the time since everything is probably pretty blurry without them on and will be more blurry once he gets used to wearing his glasses. I was originally mildly nearsighted, but liked the way the world looked with my glasses on, so I have worn them all the time since originally getting them, even though my eye doctor told me I could either wear them all the time or just when i needed to see something. This made no real sense to me, since without glasses things were fuzzy, but with glasses everything was crystal clear, so why would you want to see things out of focus?

As for sports, I have played baseball, football, basketball and ice hockey while wearing glasses and have never had a problem, except for them fogging up but once I found out if you clean them with shaving cream they wouldn’t fog up that problem was solved. Today I use sports googles with prescription lenses which pretty much removes any chance of being injured from the glasses breaking and securely hold them on your head.

I too would think about getting a second pair from someplace like Zenni or EyebuyDirect, com. it would be cheap insurance should something happen to his glasses and he wouldn’t have to wait for new glasses or for them to be repaired.

It’s also very important to compliment him on how good he looks and find out if any of the kids are teasing him because if that happens it need to be stopped quickly because you can end up with someone who won’t want to wear his glasses or lose them constantly and that is what you don’t want or need.

My suspicion was correct. My daughter is now wearing glasses, to read, but her nearsightedness is coming on fast and furious. She has been in glasses now for a little over a year, and the optometrist said she is showing signs of nearsightedness, but will revisit it next year. What I do, is praise her every time she wears them, and tell her how beautiful she looks in them. Also, I reinforce by asking her if she sees better with them on, and she always says “yes”, and reinforces that she sees clearly with them on.