First glasses

Do you remember getting your first glasses? I do. I was six when my Mom took me into a dark office, where a doctor placed a gigantic piece of equipment on my nose and told me to read off signs of dogs, boats, and cups from a chart, as he kept changing the lenses. I had been reading for a couple of years by then and told him I could do the other chart with letters on it, too.

I remembered that visit today, as my first grader came home from the optician with her first pair of glasses. Although both of her parents and an older sister wear glasses, as do several other girls in her class, she was very apprehensive. I could well understand her fears, because once, a long time ago, I went through that too.

Still, her first experiencing facing the world with the glasses on was very different from mine. That’s because today we organized a glasses party. A glasses party? Yes, a glasses party for her entire class.

While a young child requiring glasses is certainly not a cause for festivities (just ask my Mom), it was a wonderful opportunity to ease her anxiety, while letting other kids get a glimpse of this new experience and teaching them to celebrate, not just tolerate, differences among people. (The idea belongs to my son’s amazing teacher, Rabbi Shayke Alperovich of Tel Tzion’s Chabad Talmud Torah.)

So how do you make a glasses party?

Take one newly-bespectacled kid.

Add enough toy glasses for all the friends.

And don’t forget the cake.

Mix in 32 bubbly six-year-olds and you’ve got a sure-fire recipe for an unforgettable party.

Now just wish us luck. I hope the glasses will take care of the problem, so she would not need them any longer.

Do you have creative ideas for marking milestones in life? Please share them with us.

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