"Mummy my eyes are all fuzzy." These are the words my 4 year old son has been telling me on and off for a few weeks. At first I was slightly suspicious as his eyes always seemed to get fuzzy when another child in his Reception class needed glasses.
I went through the open questions "Can you explain what you mean by fuzzy?" as well as the slightly less subtle "Hey, can you see that tiny coin all the way over there in the distance?!" Then I reflected back at my own ridiculous short sightedness and felt horrendously guilty that perhaps I wasn't taking my son's potential vision problems seriously, so I spoke to his teacher and booked him into the opticians.
Although I didn't have any concerns about my daughter's eyesight, I booked her in too, and both were so excited about their upcoming visit (thanks to that Peppa Pig episode)!
My son was so desperate for glasses that I was concerned he would just tell the optician that he couldn't see anything - then I remembered how incapable he is of lying and relaxed slightly! Nevertheless, both of my children loved the experience of sitting in the chair and reading the different letters whilst wearing funny glasses - it rivalled a cake in Waitrose café and the soft play in terms of an after school treat - that is of course until the optician broke the dreadful news to my son:
"You have perfect vision, you don't need glasses."
Oh my! If you have similar aged children to me, you will empathise with the reaction this will have created. My son is 4 and he was desperate for glasses. He is still learning that we won't always get the news we are hoping for and how to deal with it - in other words, he was distraught and his cries could be heard throughout most of the small town.
Is it possible for this scenario to get any worse? In the mind of a 4 year old, could anything now happen to make him more upset than he is right now? The answer is almost certainly "No." I can only think of one thing that could make this worse, and that won't happen, right?
Wrong!
Optician: "All children are born long sighted. Your son's vision is where we would expect it to be in line with his age, however, your daughter's vision is slightly behind where we would like it to be, so we will correct her vision with glasses. If she would like to go and choose some frames, maybe your son would like to help her..."
So out we go into the shop. One daughter beaming as though she's just won a year's supply of Smarties. One son, distraught, tears streaming down his face. Instantly the staff come over, sympathetic faces and Star Wars frames at the ready, after all, it's not the first time they've seen this...
Another first, as they check the prescription notes - actually, it is the first time they've seen this, and the Star Wars frames are quickly replaced with a selection of Hello Kitty and Disney Princess frames!
So that was my Friday afternoon! At the moment, my son is clinging on to the fact that his sister had to wait until she was 6 (the 'you're very lucky that your eyes work perfectly' approach was pointless!) before she needed glasses, so I'm hoping that the desire might wear off over the next two years before his next eye test!
