Amanda Lamb: Purple glasses

When most children find out they need glasses, their reaction is one of disappointment. But when my youngest daughter found out after a routine physical that she was near-sighted, she was inexplicably overjoyed.

I, on the other hand, was immediately transported back to my 3-year-old self on the playground with thick unattractive brown glasses with a black strap that affixed them to my head. But my 7-year-old had no such mental or emotional barriers to overcome. In fact, she told me that glasses were cool.

"Mommy, can I get color glasses?" she asked.

Having no idea what options existed for children's glass, I, of course, said yes.

"Daddy," she said on the phone to her dad a minute later. "I'm getting glasses. And guess what? They're going to be colored!"

And sure enough, minutes later we were trying on blue, green, purple and pink glasses. Clearly, the choices had come a long way since I was a child.

After she modeled several pairs for me and her sister, we jointly settled on the purple glasses. The woman who fitted the glasses looked at my daughter in her new frames with her big blue eyes and a proud smile and said, "the only thing cooler than a 7-year-old in purple glasses, is a mom who lets her daughter get purple glasses."

That's exactly what I was thinking...