Help! My Daughter Won’t Take Care of Her Glasses!

Well, it’s not really unexpected that my six-year-old daughter (whose room is constantly in shambles) would have a challenge taking care of her glasses. She has two pairs because I knew there was a high likelihood of her misplacing a pair (at least temporarily).

I was cleaning her room last week and I found them. The missing pair of glasses was under her bed. They weren’t lonely, they had a cardigan sweater and a few Barbie dolls inter-tangled with them. Oh my.

“How can I get this girl to take better care of her glasses?” I wondered. We picked out the cute girl eyeglass frames she liked. I thought if she thought they were pretty, that would be enough. But, I was wrong. I needed some good ideas to help motivate and encourage my daughter to take better care of her glasses.

So, I asked an optician and these are some of the tips she gave me.

1. Give the glasses their own home.
Especially if your child doesn’t have to wear them all the time, it’s a great practice to get your child in the habit of always putting their glasses in the same place. But, unless that place is defined (and in some cases labeled) –you’ll continue to find glasses on the bathroom counter, in the bed, on their dresser…you name it. What we’ve decided to do is to keep them on top of her nightstand. She has a special case that she loves but for the glasses’ home we needed to designate a pretty plate for her glasses to rest on. That took away the mystery of whether or not the case was empty or full!
2. Reward.
Every night do a glasses check. Use incentives to motivate your child to “pass” the check by rewarding him after a successful time period (say a week) of the glasses finding their home each night. A special treat from the store or trip out for a few $2 ice cream cones is a lot less expensive than buying replacement eyeglasses because his are lost.
3. Teach Responsibility.
We all lose things from time to time, but try to remind your child that keeping track of her glasses is her job…not yours. Through positively reminding them about the growing responsibility that comes with age, you can encourage your “big girl” or “big boy” that this is all a part of learning to care for our stuff.

Remember, if you do find yourself needing to replace some lost eyeglasses, America’s Best will give you the best prices around on two pairs of designer children’s glasses frames. They carry all the colors and styles that kids love to make glasses shopping easy!