The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same

My daughter, Natalie, who has ADHD, wears glasses. That is, she’s supposed to wear glasses. But, more often than not, her glasses are bent, missing a lens, or broken.

As I’ve written in the past, we’ve tried a variety of frames but have never found any that are Natalie-proof or that we deem ADHD-worthy. Trying to keep her glasses-clad is hard on the budget, and even harder on my frustration level.

Last month Natalie broke yet another pair of frames, and because that particular model is no longer available, we had to replace both the frames and the lenses. So, I made an appointment to have her vision re-checked, to be sure her prescription was correct. This time, we asked Natalie’s ophthalmologist if Nat, at age 11, is old enough to try contacts.

“Let’s try it,” she said. “If it doesn’t work, we’ll just try again next year.” So we made an appointment with the contact lens department.

Natalie is now—semi-successfully—using disposable daily lenses. Contacts, especially the disposable kind, are pretty forgiving of ADHD foibles. You can’t crack them in half during a fit of temper. If you rub your eye and lose one, you just put in another.

Each time Natalie ruined a pair of glasses, I would fume about the waste of money. Daily wear contacts are still expensive, so I can’t say that they are saving any money, but when Natalie loses a disposable lens that is only meant to last one day anyway, I don’t lose my cool. The extra money that we’re spending on contacts is worth the decrease in my frustration. Kind of.

Natalie still needs a back-up pair of glasses, and the brand new pair she got just a few weeks ago is completely ruined, both temples ripped off in a fit of anger. Aaaargh.

Natalie broke those glasses under Dad’s watch, while I was at the annual CHADD conference in Orlando. Don told me another glasses-related story that happened while I was on that trip.

He took Natalie, and her friend Harry, who also has ADHD, to see the 3-D version of the movie “Puss in Boots”. With two kids with ADHD at a movie, there was the inevitable moving around and messing around. At one point Don saw that both of the kids had taken off their 3-D glasses. Without them, the movie looks out of focus, so he knew they were missing the story.

He told them to put their 3-D glasses back on and pay attention. They put on their glasses. Then they both turned to look at him. They were both missing a lens.