This post is sponsored by VSP® Vision Care.
There’s a story my dad’s told us since we were young that I’ll never forget. It’s about him when he was a little–an automatic captivator for kids. Legend has it, routine eye exams for kids weren’t exactly the norm back in the fifties. But my uncle cleaned a doctor’s office for extra cash, took my dad with him one night and, for fun, had my dad attempt to read the eye chart. He failed miserably.
“I don’t think Ricky can see good,” my uncle announced that night which led to a real doctor appointment and the cold hard truth that yes, my dad’s sight was in need of some major help. So he scored his first pair of glasses, with thick black frames that set him apart from his brothers in all the family pictures from then on. But my favorite part of the story comes from the ride home from the eye doctor when he, for the first time, could see detail in the world.
As the story goes, my dad exclaimed from the back seat, “Look at the trees! DAD! There are little leaves all over them!” And my grandparents cried. How much else in the world had he never noticed?
Little eyes are precious things to protect, and ensuring our kids can see well grants them not only a richer view of the world but better tools to learn. Annual eye exams are important in maintaining vision care and can also be crucial for catching other health issues. Nella wasn’t even a year old when she had her first eye exam, and we’ve been visiting her eye doctor annually (sometimes twice a year) ever since.
Thanks to frequent monitoring, we quickly caught strabismus and treated it (she wears a patch on one eye 2 hours a day) and have shown our girl that visiting the eye doctor is not a scary experience but a fun one. The proof lies in the 231 pairs of glasses the girls try on.
Thankfully, we have great vision insurance, and keeping up on our kids’ vision care has not been a financial burden. Without it though–especially with Nella’s frequent visits and prescription change–we would have spent quite a bit, a hurdle that could intimidate many families pursuing vision care for multiple children. VSP® Vision Care wants every family to have more #EyeOpeningMoments (leaves on trees!) by addressing their children’s eye health needs and keeping up on annual eye exams. They offer a number of affordable vision plans so families can do just that.
You can sign up for a vision plan right from their site, and then make an appointment to get your kids to an eye doctor.
Another helpful tool in making the eye doctor fun? Role play!
Barbie’s an eye doctor. Who knew?!
Nella’s far-sighted and needs her glasses most when she’s reading or close to things (iPad, computer), so we keep an extra pair of glasses at school where it’s most critical.
These little eyes are going to learn so much about the world, and we’re keeping them healthy.
To learn more about VSP Vision Care and how they can help, you can also check out their Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channel.
To more #EyeOpeningMoments and noticing all the details in the world.
Meg Roque says
My left eye was patched for several hours a day when I was a kid – 35 years ago! Back then, there were no cute and colorful patch options, so my mom would get out her markers every morning and draw a beautiful eye on my flesh-colored patch. Bold lashes, colorful eye-shadow, and usually a few hearts and stars. The best part? I thought I looked beautiful and “normal”. A few years ago I told my mom how much her drawing my “eye” meant to me. She had no idea. I am so glad I didn’t wait till it was too late to say a thank you 35 years past due!
Kelle says
Can’t tell you how much I love this story! What a thoughtful, creative mama. I love that you thanked her for it years later.
Meg says
I know I’m pregnant (so very, very pregnant), but this made me cry. So sweet and thoughtful. <3 What an awesome mama.
Sheelagh McCourt says
I am now 70 years old and remember my Mother telling me that when I got my first pair of glasses in grade 3 I said “Oh, you can see leaves on trees!” – and she cried because she had not known what I had missed and for how long. I think perhaps stepping outside for the first time, that well might be one’s first look at “the world”. I am near sighted, so not sure that anyone far sighted would not have seen individual leaves.
Robin says
I had a similar experience as a kid. Got glasses in Grade 3 and found out that leaves had EDGES. Intellectually I knew they had edges, I just thought they were something not visible to the human eye. I was shocked!
Julie F says
My 25 yo daughter failed her preschool/kindergarten eye screening many years ago. Miserably. She also noticed the tree leaves were not a big green blob, the first day she went outside with her new glasses. And we, as parents, wondered what else she had missed in those early years. She was late reading because she never saw letters. Wasn’t interested in TV and computers (not a bad thing) because she couldn’t see. Fortunately she was an independent and determined individual and her bad vision hasn’t slowed her down. Because her glasses opened up such a world for her, she took great care of them and hasn’t broken a pair in 20 years! She got her first contacts when she was only 10. Great post on the importance of checking our kids eyes – we had no idea!
Amanda Kipfer says
I was ten and sitting in an ice cream shop with my mom when reality shifted.
“What kind of ice cream do you want?” she asked.
“I’ll go up and look at the menu,” I answered. We were seated, and the menu on the wall was — obviously — too far away to see.
“I can read it to you,” she offered.
Thunderstruck, I gasped, “You can SEE that far?!”
Horrified, she replied, “You CAN’T?!”
I remember getting my glasses a week later and going to the grocery store with my mom. I’ll never forget that trip – I flashed the glasses up and down, looking above them and then through them, exclaiming, “There are words up there! Look, Mom, it says PRODUCE!” It was the most magical experience; suddenly I could SEE THINGS FAR AWAY. Blurry became crisp; shapes became actual pictures or objects. All those smudges up high on the wall? Words. Pictures. I had no idea.
My mother, of course, recalls it as one of her most embarrassing shopping trips ever. 😉
Thank you for sharing your dad’s story – I’ll bet most of us who wear vision correction can identify!
🙂 Amanda
Catherine says
Something else to add to this post, school nurses play a vital role in vision health for students. Each state has a different mandate for which grades are screened (https://aapos.org/resources/state_by_state_vision_screening_requirements/). School nurses can also provide vouchers for free exams and glasses through VSP if they are a member of the National Association of School Nurses.
Annie says
I’m an optometrist and I LOVE this post! Eye examinations are SO important and kids should have one at least at 6 months, 3 years, and before entering school. There are so many kids that don’t get seen and have either strabismus or amblyopia. I’m so glad Nella has enjoyed her eye visits. I’m 30 and I have that Barbie set for myself! 😉 I love my job and love the reaction of kids with their first pair of glasses.
Babies under one year old can actually have a free eye examination to rule out high prescriptions or bad eye diseases. Check here to find a doctor near you: http://www.infantsee.org/.
Niccole says
My eldest is almost nine, and has been followed for strabismus since she was an infant. We patched for several years and have had two surgeries. She’s had glasses since she was two.
She has lousy depth perception, and my mom is always saying stuff like, “my heart breaks for her- she can’t catch a ball! She can’t work a magic eye painting! She has trouble threading a needle! HER LIFE IS SO HARD!!”
And I’m always like, “really mom? Her life is hard? She’s happy, she’s healthy. She dances and has never wanted to play t-ball. *I* can’t work a magic eye painting, and she always eventually threads the needle. She’s fine!”
Well. This past spring she was invited to be a guest in a friend’s gymnastics class. We’d been thinking of pulling her from her program because she didn’t seem interested, nor was she progressing. After, she told me it was the best gym class ever, and could she please switch gyms.
I asked her what made this so much better than the other gym.
“Oh.” she said. “I can see the coach in this gym, so I know what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Scratch the record, WHAT?
“The other gym is so big, and has so many classes going on, and is so badly lit that I can’t see the coach well enough to figure out that to do.”
I felt like such an awful parent, that I had no idea she was having a hard time seeing well enough to participate in an activity that she obviously did enjoy. I never really understood the importance of good lighting and the effect that too much visual input could have on someone even when they have corrective lenses. I did cry a bit after that conversation, and immediately switched gyms!
Lynne says
I have a similar story – I got eye glasses when I was in 3rd grade. When we came out of the office after getting them, there was a bird perched on the little bumper/curb thing at the front of one of the parking spots. I said “Wow, I knew birds had beaks, but I’ve never seen one before.” I couldn’t figure out why my mom just started crying…..I thought maybe she had an aversion to birds or something that I didn’t know about…..poor mom – when I got older and had my own kids, I realized just how badly she must have felt.