I feel like my life has revolved around glasses adjustments this week. One of the unanticipated (for me, in retrospect, it seems obvious) consequences of Zoe having two pair of glasses is that it doubles the number of frames that might need adjusting.
Friday I took Zoe in to get her red frames adjusted, they were sliding down her nose something fierce (adjustment #1). While we were there, I asked the optician if he’d adjust my glasses, too, since Zoe had commented on them falling down my face that morning. He did (#2) and we went on our way. By that evening, the back of my ears were hurting. By the next day, I could hardly stand to wear my glasses, so I went to my eyeglasses store and got my frames adjusted again (#3). The woman worked with me for about 15 minutes to get the frames right. When I left, the tops of my ears hurt a bit but I figured it would pass. I was wrong. By Sunday, my shoulders were completely knotted up because the pain was so bad. I’m now wearing an old pair of glasses – with an old but decent prescription until I can get in for another adjustment. This reminded me of when I first got my glasses at age 8. I remember the pain on my ears and the side of my head. I would try to adjust my glasses myself to make it better. I think I snapped off the end of my glasses 3 or 4 times, to my parents’ chagrin. But what can you do, when they hurt it’s unbearable.
On to Tuesday, Zoe decides to wear her blue glasses, which are a little crooked from a recent fall. I try to adjust them enough to straighten them, and they look ok, so we head to daycare. When she gets out of the car, I notice her glasses are way down on her nose, I push them up, and she says “No. Glasses down the nose,” and looks at me over the top of her glasses. I try a couple more times with the same result. So back in the car and off to the glasses store (luckily less than 10 minutes away) to adjustment #4. She’s wearing the glasses just fine now.
I plan to get my glasses adjusted (#5) on Friday.
Lessons: poorly adjusted glasses are bad! Having an extra pair of glasses is key, not just for when they break, but also when they’re not fitting right. I need to remember that bad adjustments could keep Zoe from wearing her glasses, or cause her to break them.
Question: do you adjust your child’s (or your own) glasses yourself, or do you normally go to an eye glasses or eye doctor’s office for adjustments? I feel like the employees at the store where we get Zoe’s glasses adjusted see her more often than her grandparents – though that’s probably only true this week.
For Little Eyes 
Ann that’s a really great perspective! I have never once considered that Aubrie’s glasses being poorly aligned could bother her ears or her head. Very logical, but since I’ve never worn glasses I never even considered it. We most generally have the optical office adjust her glasses, but I will admit I sometimes do it myself. The eye glasses store is 45 minutes away and I rarely go to that town so I try to get by if we can. Now that you mentioned that I will probably get them adjusted more often by someone actually qualified to do it 🙂 We do always keep a spare pair just in case though…very handy if the old ones break…they are a must have!
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Well, I obviously adjust my own. And if/when Nora needs glasses, I’ll adjust them.
But here are my two cents to the readers: If you feel comfortable with very simple adjustments, go for it. But other than that, leave it to the professionals, because you can can cause more damage than you fix. Opticians have the tools (frame warmer to prevent breaking, 15 different pliers, and 15K different screws). They don’t mind doing it because it is their job. Any place that sells tot-sized glasses should enjoy working with your little ones. So don’t be afraid to go in as much as needed. That is their job! 🙂
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For the first few years, we were in getting Alex’s & Sarah’s glasses adjusted a couple of times a week. Now, we mostly do it ourselves unless it is a serious problem and have acquired a lot of the tools to do it properly… That being said, it is a big treat to go visit “the gang” and get lots of positive attention!!
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I think we are in at the glasses place every other week for my son’s glasses getting adjusted. We have several spares which my husband can adjust (from zenni) but his good pairs we wouldn’t even dream of trying to adjust ourselves… back to the optical shop we go! They know him by name there!!!!
My daughter hasn’t needed hers adjusted yet but in the beginning I wondered if she needed them adjusted or was just adjusting to wearing them – complaining that it hurt her ears.
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I’m so glad to hear we’re not the only ones making frequent visits for adjustments. Zoe’s glasses place is great – she gets stickers every time we visit. I just hope she doesn’t associate stickers with the visits too much and start bending her frames so she can get more stickers.
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We brought ours in to Lange and asked them to help adjust, of which they told me that they were fine and needed no adjusting (ARGH – did I mention how unhappy I was with them? DON”T GET GLASSES THERE) So I brought them to the new optical place where they fixed them free, even though I have not purchaced anything but clip on sunglasses there. The nose pieces were broken, cabels bent and completely not fitting right. We’ve now stopped by maybe 5 times and the OP is awesome and fixes the glasses each time. He never takes any money, just says he wants to make sure Elly is comfortable wearing the glasses.
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We got Sophie’s glasses from Eye Masters, we really got it there out of convenience(not even 2 minutes away).
At the beginning of her wearing her “eyes” we were in there 2-3 times a week and just about everytime we went in there it felt like we were a bother.
The ladies would make comments to our 2 year old about handling her glasses properly and when we would sit down almost like try to correct her for taking off her glasses the right way.
Now we’re in there once a week and I really think it has to do with the cable temples and how Sophie takes them off.
Now that Eye Masters realized we were’nt going anywhere, whenever Sophie walks in there’s at least one of the associates that welcomes her and when we’re leaving Sophie tells them all good-bye as well as the glasses & the door…it’s funny.
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