Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Out of Touch Mom

Our girl is 13 years and 10 months old.

But even though she is growing up so nicely and so lovely, she is in eighth grade. And a middle-schooler is a middle-schooler.

Our daughter is a glasses wearer. She is quite dependent on them, and was overjoyed a couple of years ago when my sister and favorite optometrist convinced me that my girl needed contact lenses. She told me how my girl's field of vision would literally open up. She told me how people would notice my girl's eyes and how my girl would grow in confidence. So contacts it was.

In the last year, my daughter's vision has changed and her glasses are far from the script she needs, so she wears her contacts from the first minute after waking until the last minute before sleep. I always fret about what will happen if she needs to wear her glasses to school.

So I gave her great news a while back. I told her that we will be visiting the local optometrist and ordering new lenses AND frames.

If I imagined her joy, her gratitude, her delight in not having to wear contacts every minute of every day, I was mistaken.

"I really don't need glasses," she replied.

But what about having the option of not wearing contacts?
What about the option of taking the contacts out earlier and watching t.v. through glasses and simply slipping the glasses off when she gets tired instead of walking to the bathroom to take out and rinse the contacts?
What about all the cute frames out now? What about the fashion change-up new frames would provide? And what of the fact that she cannot see through her current lenses?

"I could never wear glasses to school because I have braces and that combination is something people laugh at."

You know, you could not pay me enough money to ever go back to being 13.

17 comments:

Unknown said...

I got all my grey hairs from years spent as a Middle Schooler Mom...

I will be praying diligently for you.

Pancake said...

Oh to be in middle school again.... wait that is a nightmare! My son, youngest, wears contacts and he WANTS an extra pair of glasses....

MsTypo said...

I wear glasses and have since i was 16 - around the same time i got braces. If you want her to take the contacts out at night have the optomtrist she likes convince her. *shrug* Can't hurt to try. :)

Mental P Mama said...

Well I'm sorry, but she does have a point;)

Unknown said...

You gotta LuV Teens...especially "new" teens!
It's just really sad the 'peer pressure' that is out there...but it always been there and will always be!
I know 'the DIVA' is the same way! I have tried to encourage her to start a "new trend" when getting her to wear something, that apparently no one else is wearing! (it usually does not work though)...so then I try and point out someone else wearing it while we're out...her response is usually...well she doesn't know what's "IN"....
I'm NOT giving up though! I keep trying...to her dismay! Grandmas can get away with that! :)

Laura ~Peach~ said...

LMAO I try to get martha to start new trends... Cory was the trend setter here ..., in fact both of my kids have caused the county to implement new Rules....sigh... I say glasses as back up are necessity but i also know that how you see things (depth perception) is totally different between glasses and contacts... contacts rule in that...

Noe Noe Girl...A Queen of all Trades. said...

Why are kids so darn cruel to each other?

Jeannelle said...

I saw your post's title and thought, "NO, caution couldn't possibly be referring to herself. She would never be out of touch as a mom."

Oh, goodness....I became four-eyed in third grade and never looked back. Never took the plunge to contacts and never wanted to. I even had braces in junior high, too. How did I ever survive? I simply wore earplugs to avoid hearing that constant laughter.

Have fun.

Anonymous said...

Ok, I have to say as your younger friend, every one knows you can't wear glasses with braces! Come on! Get with it! It's like whites after Labor Day when we were younger!
She is adorable. I pray she never has an eye infection though. That could be tragic.
On a separate note, I was so excited to refill my contacts script after not having them for awhile, but now I have to remember to get solution! I have not managed to remember to buy it every time I go, so I have had the box for two weeks now unopened. Heck of a lot of money to just let them sit.

Mary Lee said...

I never had glasses or braces. I had over large boobs and got teased for that tho... Your daughter will go thru mountains of extra work just to look good. I sure remember those days! Now I can't remember if I combed my hair!

Betty said...

Teens are so hard on each other. It´s a tough few years to get through!

Dr.John said...

I was picked on at that age because I was fat and awkward. I wouldn't want to go back.
My kids were picked on because they were the pastor's kids but they held their own.

Pleasing Procrasinator said...

The Diva is suppose to wear glasses and will not. Her other grandmother works @ eye DR, so she can have whatever pair she wants (Hey wait, maybe I should get the glasses she won't). She has asked for contacts and we will not get them until she starts wearing the glasses.
Kids being picked on, sheesh, what about the kids picking on the adults?

joanne said...

I din't have either glasses or braces, not that I didn't need them but, I wouldn't go back for anything...

Mrs4444 said...

What a sweetheart.

Lucy and Ethel said...

I didn't have braces, but I remember vividly the new contacts in the spring of 9th grade - getting used to them and wanting to forget I had glasses... no matter what! Drove my dad a bit nutty :)

I am thankful we can't go back in time!

sues2u2 said...

I wore glasses in elementary & jr high. Then my dad was jumping a wave in our ski boat & my glasses fell off. Hello, contacts! I loved them. Didn't want to take them off until I found out I was an ideal candidate for Lasik (after two kids & many, many years!) Hopefully she'll be able to do Lasik @ some point too & then it won't matter. *grin*

Your daughter looks like a beautiful young lady.