How to Get Your Kids to Wear Their Glasses (And Love Them!)

Does your child need to wear glasses? Getting them to keep those glasses on can be tough, but these tips will help you achieve success.

Getting your child to wear their glasses may be challenging, especially when they’re uncomfortable using eyewear or feel awkward when teased by their peers. And while you may want the best for your kids as a parent, they may not always be willing to follow along. 

Our post on “How to Know if You Have a Strong Willed Child” outlines that these kinds of kids will often question things, refuse to comply, or argue if they disagree with you.

While being strong-willed isn’t always bad, convincing them to wear glasses, even if it’s good for them, can be a struggle. Fortunately, you don’t have to fight tooth and nail or give up altogether.

How to Get Your Kids to Wear Their Glasses

Here are a few ways to get your kids to wear and love their glasses.

1. Help them understand why they need glasses

It can be difficult for kids to understand why they need glasses. To them, it’s a significant change that they can’t fully grasp with limited knowledge.

Educating them on why glasses are necessary can encourage them to wear them for their benefit. You can explain things like far-sightedness or short-sightedness, the latter of which the BBC reports to be rising in children globally and is a leading reason why more children need glasses.

You can talk to them about their particular vision issues, if they have any, and discuss how glasses help them see better than before. Let them know that glasses aren’t a negative thing, nor do they mean that there’s something wrong with them; glasses are an essential tool to help them see the world.

It’s also a good idea to show them examples of successful or famous people who wear corrective glasses, too, to highlight how vision problems can affect anyone. Your child will be more motivated to wear their glasses when they understand why they need a pair.

2. Model positive behaviors

Your child may not initially be excited about wearing their glasses, but if you or a family member wear glasses, you can model them to show how helpful they can be.

You can take the lead and show them that you need them too, and that they aren’t alone in wearing glasses. Doing so can build their confidence and make them feel less alone. While this is doable for parents who likewise need prescription eyewear, moms who don’t need vision correction but want to support their kids can find cool-looking, prescription-free shades. 

Burberry sunglasses for women come in styles that resemble eyeglasses but are actually chic eyewear—such as the BE3128 Carmen. They’re a modern update on the classic pilot sunglasses, giving you a timeless, sleek look that epitomizes modern British luxury. You’ll be able to show your child how stylish glasses can be.

By wearing glasses proudly, you can model for your children how people use glasses for different situations and how they can help protect the eyes, improve sight, and look stylish at the same time.

You may even want to go the extra mile and get you and your child matching glasses or sunglasses. Brands like KidRaq offer matching parent and child eyewear that’s fashionable and fun, so both of you can look your best.

The Kool Kid shades fit both kids and adults and have a trendy yet timeless look that suits all ages. When they see that glasses can be cool and fun, they’ll be more willing to wear them.

3. Let them choose their glasses

When looking for a pair of glasses, you’d probably want to take the reins, especially if your child is younger, but allowing them to choose their own set can help them stay excited about wearing glasses.

You can let them try on many pairs; however, browsing through a wide variety of glasses can be overwhelming, so you can guide the process by narrowing down the choices. The Child Mind Institute’s insights on decision-making for kids suggest giving them two options to choose from.

Pick from the frames they were most interested in and allow them to point out the one they liked the most. You can set boundaries and limits but still offer some flexibility within those parameters.

Letting them choose can give them more agency and independence, and it can assure you that you’re buying them a pair of glasses they’ll love.