Always Be Prepared (Seriously)
Packing for three kids (and myself) before a vacation is a major effort rife with chances of missing something very necessary for my kids to enjoy our time away from home. It’s really a game of odds and a guarantee of forgetting something for (at least) one.
One time it was all of my son’s pajamas. Another time I forgot underwear for my daughter. On our last trip, I failed to pack spare glasses for my daughters. To be fair, their prescriptions had just changed and all they wanted to wear were their Fitz glasses (true story, not a shameless plug!) I figured we would be fine for a week-long trip and we didn’t have an extra few days for more to be custom made. But still. I was playing Russian roulette by not having backups should disaster strike.
When something happens to a kid’s glasses, solid replacement options are extremely limited. You can not simply saunter into your local department store and purchase an off-the-rack option. Even once you find an optometrist, the kid’s selection will be very limited. If you don’t have an identical pair to what they are used to, it can be really difficult for kids to adjust to something different on their faces. Not only will they often have to wait a week for glasses, they will also be dealing with the grief of losing the pair they loved and the image they have of themselves with the glasses they put on every day.
I got to experience this firsthand on this last family vacation. While spending a blissful day of summer vacay at the pool where everyone was actually getting along (#miracle), it happened – glasses we had left too close to the pool edge had flipped over and scratched underneath a raft. Oops. Yes, the founder of a kids glasses company let her kid have glasses not only left outside of a case, but where anyone could accidentally destroy them. So, after berating myself for letting that happen, I hopped in the car with my daughter to go about finding a replacement.
My can-do attitude faded quickly after we stopped at 3 large stores with optical departments (no one cut their own lenses and one told me it would take 10-14 days to get glasses) to the only lab I could find. They didn’t have the prescription or type of lens we needed, but could replace them for $200.
After visiting two drug stores, we ended up settling on a pair of readers and used them for the next 48 hours until we got home. We were lucky that my daughter had a pretty typical prescription available in readers. If it had been my other daughter, we literally would have had no options and she would have not been able to see. Meaning, I would have had to cut the vacation short and head home. Yes, her condition is that serious and as I pen this, I am making a solemn swear to never be in this situation again.
Which makes the other point regarding adults with vision needs, it’s just as important to have a backup pair. I’ve heard too many stories about glasses being broken at the start of a trip with the slip of bag in the overhead airplane bin, contacts/glasses being lost in a checked bag, and glasses misplaced on a bike ride so that the owner had a backup pair of sunglasses he was forced to wear for the rest of the trip (night time dinners included). It’s too stressful and expensive!
Fortunately, Fitz has a fix. Our subscription plan entitles you to two glasses to start, so you’re automatically covered with a backup (and the app works for adults, psst insider secret). And if you’d like additional pairs later, you can get those too, for a low reasonable price and convenient delivery. Our mission is to solve glasses for families. Whether you are at home or traveling - Fitz has you covered!