My son says today is the "worst day of his life" because he found out he has to wear glasses. Aside from the heartbreak of that :(, I wanted to ask the moms out there for advice: do we order the designer frames from our optometrist's office, or go the cheaper route at Walmart/Target? My hubby is afraid this is a "we get what we pay for" moment, and assumes that if we automatically go cheaper, then a six-year-old can probably break them easier if they're lesser quality. Our insurance will cover about $150 of the costs, so that definitely helps. :) Any of you with bespectacled kids out there, let me know what your experience was like, and which route you'd recommend. Thanks in advance!
I remember seeing research a while back about who does the best job at matching prescriptions with glasses (not every place is accurate) and Costco topped the list. You might track down that survey to see where stores like Walmart rate.
My vote is Wal-Mart. And that’s with having 2 Ophthalmologist’s in the family…many of us pick up our cheaper summer glasses at Wal-Mart’s eye center. Especially for kids. Save your money for other things, like his future education.
We have gotten our son glasses from Wal-Mart and from the eye dr. I personally haven’t seen a difference.
We got the warranty from both places, the bendable arms and the scratch resistant lens.
Honestly, we saw no difference in how long they lasted. It more depended on how rough he was on them at that time ( sports mainly played a factor in it)
We have always gotten the prescription from the optometrist and taken it to an optical place. LensCrafters, Costco, Walmart, JC Penneys…they have all been cheaper than the doctor’s office glasses, great selection and good quality. It would be ok to shop around, too. LensCrafters is always my pick because they will figure up the cost with different discounts and help me get te best price. Plus, they have a 30 day period for you to change your mind for any reason. I tend to change my mind a lot about important things like eyewear.
Costco or Sears.
They both have good return/exchange policies and will help with fitting it.
I have gotten my prescription glasses from both places. And good prices.
Get a flex frame. Not wire frame, that will bend. Especially with a kid.
Buying glasses from an Optometrist, will be more expensive.
OH- and ALWAYS, get a back-up pair of glasses… just in case the one used breaks or gets lost. ALWAYS get 2 pairs, for that reason.
The lenses will still be the same at Wal-mart but the frames will be cheaper (you can pick out a good-looking pair on him that will cost you less. "
Don’t let them talk you into everything under the moon.
Having said that, anti-glare is good. Possibly scatch resistant coating as he is a kid & may not take care of them as you and I might.
They are really pretty much all the same.
I would do Walmart.
See how he does with them…
I now purchase mine online for super cheap…But of course there is no service if something happens to them, but the frames are so inexpensive, i will never pay retail again.
I would go as cheap as possible…kids are hard on these things…I bought two frames for $99 at Doctor’s vision works. Check to see if that’s a better deal.
We always go the Walmart route! My kids that wear glasses are 14, 13 and 13. Walmart replaces screws, fixes nose pieces, they’ve even replaced the whole frame on a couple of occasions when a kids has broken them. A 6 year old is going to need something to help out when they break their glasses. Give them that by going to Walmart.
You can stop reading with this comment…I have THE solution!!!
Just have your sons prescription in hand and measure his pupil distance. The have TONS of frames to choose from and they’re between $7 and $30 each!! Order 2 so you can have a back-up pair. Regardless of cost they’re going to get broken…so why pay the extra $? My husband, my 9 year old and myself have bought multiple pairs from them before. You can even have them tinted (just choose 80% tiny with either gray or amber) for sunglasses. You just can’t beat it. Check them out. I’ll NEVER go to an eyeglass place ever again.
My son was about 6 when he got his first pair of glasses, he’s 8 now. We went to Walmart because so many people said good things about them and their warranty. Those glasses broke so many times in the first few months! He didn’t have them more than he had them as they send them out for repair. He had them break while we were on vacation shortly after getting them, the frame snapped and the lens fell out. We found ourselves at a Lenscrafters that did 1 hour so he had glasses for the rest of the trip. When we got back we got the other pair fixed again. In the end the Walmart ones broke so many times that we picked a different frame, that promptly broke. We went ahead and got them fixed and relegated them to his back up emergency pair and he wore the Lenscrafters pair full time instead because those weren’t breaking all the time. His newest pair came from Costco and are holding up nicely and were priced well. We keep his Lenscrafters as the emergency backups, even though the frames are getting a little too small for him and his prescription changed slightly after being the same for 2 years. He’s not needed them months later because the Costco ones are holding up. We have the Walmart ones still but never use them.
ETA: I forgot. His eye doctor checked to see what matched the prescription. Lenscrafters was slightly off which is a downside I have to admit. Walmart was right on as was Costco. This was the only upside we found to Walmart.
I think that frames from Walmart or anywhere else can be just as good. Get kid frames, which are usually more forgiving in the bending and get coatings for the lenses. I’ve had glasses since I was a kid and really it mattered less the location of purchase than that they fit and I didn’t leave them in the sandbox. I got a lot of my recent glasses at Hour Eyes or Lenscrafters. This last pair was at the optometrist because that’s what the HMO covered.
We went with the optometrist where DH gets his glasses. We did primarily because DS has an astigmatism and we were more confident in the optometrist’s office. We were really pleased to find out they offer a kid’s package - any frame and lenses for $110. WOW. And let me say they are NOT a bargain for DH’s glasses - an adult can easily drop $400 for a pair of glasses. So, I would check with your optometrist. Also our optometrist does free adjustments for life and they give us a new bottle of lens cleaner and wipes whenever we go in there (they are next to our coffee shop - so I don’t hesitate to go in whenever we are low on cleaner or DS has bent the frames again).
BTW - my son got his glasses at age 6. He was so excited to get them - his best friend at school has always had glasses as do several other kids so he thought it was great. He adapted really easily to wearing them and has never even come close to losing them.
You could try online at Zennioptical.Com <<, so far, we;ve had good luck… you have to know all the sizing of one’s face, e,g, pupil distance , etc… but that you can obtain from your eye doctor…
Also, the glasses are very inexpensive so you can buy a few pair…
and at six… you may want to go the cheaper route… We bought our son, Converse brand and sure enough, they got scratched up… He is now ten and this time around, he takes better care of his glasses. it’s just tough when they are younger, things happen…
We got ours from the optometrist for my son (who got his glasses at 6 years old). Within the first two months, we had to visit the office three times for repairs. Those repairs were completely free because they were covered under a warranty. We found some cheap glasses online that we ordered as back up glasses, but it was tough getting the prescription from the optometrist. She didn’t want to give it to us because she didn’t want us buying cheap glasses. Her office will not repair or help us with the ones we get online, so they were trying to discourage us. But we have his covered pair now and a cheap backup. Works for us!
i’m interested in the online stuff but my dr wasn’t so great about giving me the info and prescription ( well he gave it but i couldn’t read it) for my own glasses, so we just played it safe and got them from Kidspecs which is i guess is the optomotrist, they are in the same room so i assume so anyways.
that being said the frames were bendable ones and held up well.
what you might want to consider is how easy is it to get help if the frames break or get bent and need adjusted. I’ve heard great things about Costco glasses, and i can say walmart would have been very convenient much more so than driving 20 mins to the eye dr, instead of 5 to walmart. i can’t speak for the service though as i imagine it varies by region.
Guess that doesn’t help much but Good luck, Glasses aren’t so bad, Aurthor has them DW’s brother, Clark Kent etc.
did break my mommy heart though, since it made him look more grown up.
OH and please Make him wear them All day right from the start. if the presciption is right it really shouldln’t take more than 3 days to get used to it. I used to help in a classroom and kids that were told they could take them off DID every 5 seconds on and off on and off and lost them and what a pain, Athome your call but much much easier just to say WEAR them!! compromise wear them all the time except gym
Ask your neighbors whose children wear glasses. Pick their brains. Get some good recommendations and learn about the bad ones.
Our younger son was wearing glasses before Target and Walmart were in the optical business. But one year we went to a widely advertised cheapie outfit because the price seemed soooo good. The glasses did not fit well, he had headaches, and when we had them checked by another eye doctor we discovered that those glasses were not made to his prescription. The cheapie outfit would do nothing to remedy the situation. It was definitely a case of “you get what you pay for”! So we turned to a more reputable place where he could get the glasses he really needed, but still didn’t quite cost us two arms and two legs (maybe just one apiece). Even so, we always had his new glasses checked out by an eye doctor after that. Sight is important.
That said, you don’t have to buy the most expensive glasses, either. Be sure to get frames especially made for kids! You want sturdy ones that 1) will stand up to a six-year-old’s activity, and that 2) are cool enough for him to like. Once he gets them, he may be surprised at how much more enjoyable his life is.
Here’s something to think about: ask at the optical places if they have different rates for different insurance coverage. It can happen. The last time this ol’ lady had to have new glasses, I wasn’t going to get them where I had my eyes examined, until I learned that, because I don’t have optical insurance, the cost was automatically going to be 20% less.
WalMart all the way! They’re inexpensive, but not cheaply made…& with both of my sons - lasted until they needed new ones due to growth or vision changes.
Get the spring hinges, & opti-flex if possible. They hold up great!