Well, so far so good. Car didn’t arrive back so hopefully they’ve lost it and therefore I didn’t have to go and feel old in the car hire office.

In addition having deployed my “completely crap mother” tactics, I am hoping that my 8 year olds inability to see clearly has been solved. Yesterday, the teacher stopped me after school to say that he hadn’t been able to read the words on the page of his book, or the words on the whiteboard. I told her about the trip to hospital and about the trip to the opticians and his seeming desire to wear glasses. I told her that I would talk to him again and asked her to keep an eye on him today – if there were still problems we’d talk again.

We got home. I sat him down. “Are your eyes hurting?”. “No”. “Are you worried about anything?” “No”. “Can you read those words over there?” “Yes”. “Is it just all about wanting to wear glasses?” “Yes”. “Why?” “Because I’ll look cool” “Ok”, I told him “here’s the deal”. “What if I give you £3.00 to buy a whole load of Match Attack football cards and then we don’t mention having glasses again until you really really need them which will be when you’re about 16”. He thought about it for a moment and then said “what if we don’t go and buy the cards, can I still have some glasses?”. “No” I told him. “OK then, it’s a deal. Lets go”.

He’s back from school now. No mention of anything to do with his eyes so far and everything was fine at school.

Who was it that said bribery never paid? Fingers crossed it worked.

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6 Comments
  • Fat, frumpy and fifty...
    October 21, 2008

    fingers crossed here too! Wish I had thought of that before I spent 4 months trying to cajole daughter into wearing hers..of course she didnt need them, and realised she didnt look cool after all….now at almost 17 she states that she may actually need them for real…well lets hope she doesnt do one on the optician again…sigh! kids eh? well done you..bribery works every time, a great problem solver..swear we will never do it…and then we do it all the time..LOL

  • Expat mum
    October 21, 2008

    Now why can’t they just come out and say what they really want?

  • Anonymous
    October 21, 2008

    Or you could get some cheapo ones from somewhere and take the lenses out and let him wear them so he sees how cool he looks. Perhaps a Christmas present???!!

  • family affairs
    October 22, 2008

    Yes, I thought about that anon. You can get clear lens glasses I believe. I’m going to keep that as another solution if mentioned again Lx

  • DMM
    October 22, 2008

    OMG that is somewhat funny. I had glasses at the age of 8 and couldn’t WAIT to get rid of them for contacts…which I was finally allowed to have in the 9th grade. Now finally at the age of 30+ I was brave enough to get lasik surgery and need no glass or contacts. I haven’t been this happy in years!! HA

  • A Mother's Place is in the Wrong
    October 22, 2008

    Nice move Lulu, let’s hope it works long-term. M xx