There are only a few times in your life that you can get away with wearing glasses in a really bright color, and age 5 is one of them. My 5yo just got purple glasses–but then she’s a girl. Purple is her favorite, and she does look adorable, even when wearing aqua and orange with them. Gets tons of compliments. Even though yours is a boy, I vote let him choose the red ones. Soon enough he’ll be refusing to wear anything but gold wire.
Another vote for “let him pick.” Sure, you may not like them as much. But they aren’t your glasses. He’s the one who has to live with them, and I can think of few things that’d suck more than having to wear something every day that someone else picked out and I hated.
Also, I agree that the gold glasses are hard core dorky.
Hey, when I was a kid I was stuck with whatever industrial glasses could handle my insanely thick Coke-bottle lenses. The idea of having a choice would have been so freaking exciting for me. He’s five - let him pick.
If he looks like Elton John and glows in the dark then he will get teased at age 5. For your needs he should get the best dollar value so it should be a function of cost and durability. If the frames he likes fall into the above category than you can give him some choice but if he looks like a toad then you have parental discretion to veto them.
Yup.
She didn’t post the bright red version.
Let him pick the glasses he likes best. Frames get broken in the rough and tumble world of kids, and he’s going to outgrow them sooner than an adult would too. Next time it comes to pick, he might want blue or silver. 
I searched all over online for a picture of the exact glasses. Theseare as close to what he wants as I could find. At least I remember them as being this bright.
I don’t know this woman, but oddly enough it looks like she might be a teacher in a preschool or kindergarten based on this photo.
I am leaning towards letting him get the ones he wants, after reading all the responses. I will see what he says when we go back to order them.
I think red/orange glasses on that little blondie are going to look really cool.
My elder son has been wearing glasses since he was nine and we let him pick. Oddly enough he went for really dark brown chunky ones. My first reaction was “Yuck” then he put them on and it changed to “OH!” He’s really good looking with square lenses. I would never have considered them for me because that’s not my face shape.
One more vote for “Let him choose” and “Anything to get him to wear them” and another for “Anyway five minutes later they are going to be smashed or twisted”! (Mine got his repaired last Saturday afternoon and re-smushed them on Sunday afternoon - grrr.)
We went with two frames actually because my husband was a sucker and kid couldn’t choose between a green pair and the chunky brown pair, and both suited him. It turned out to be a good thing because they did need repairing by turns. He just has one pair right now and it’s not really enough. We hit a cheap offer weekend so that it was only a bit more than one pair anyway.
My daughter has been wearing glasses since she was 3 or 4. She was the first kid in her class to get glasses, and her preschool teacher was really great about getting the other kids positive about it. Luckily, as there are already kids with glasses in your son’s class, that isn’t likely to be an issue.
Like your son, she has astigmatism (plus slight shortsightedness). She is now 11, and she is trying out contact lenses. Her astigmatism is just bad enough that the trial was covered by Medicare (national health system for non-Aussies.) Her script seems stable, she will not grow out of it as someone upthread suggested.
She is careful with her glasses - uses both hands to take them off and put them on, even when she thinks no-one is watching. Puts them on as soon as she gets up, only takes them off to swim, shower and sleep. She is not naturally athletic (genetic, yanno?), but does play some sports - whatever the current school sport is, plus two extra (jazz dance or kung-fu plus fencing). We have always gone with bendable frames and plastic lenses as we don’t want her to avoid activity in case her glasses get damaged.
So why do I mention this? Just to give a background to her level of activity. She has NEVER had a pair of glasses last more than 6 months. Ever. Someone upthread mentioned a warranty option (we don’t have it here.) Take it. I also strongly recommend that any frames your child have are either flexible, or at the least have side hinges that bend out. That way, when he does a face plant, the frames won’t do as much damage.
So my short answer to “should he be allowed to pick his own frames?”, is “provided you can afford them, and they are suitable for use by an active child, then absolutely.”
Remember - in 6 months you will be looking for new frames anyway
The problem is, that you want him to look sharp and he wants to look cool. This only gets worse with a child who cares, let me warn you. One of my kids cares very much and selects his clothing with great care; one just says, “oh, you pick” and puts on whatever first comes to hand – clean or not. If it doesn’t smell from about four feet away, it’s all good.
Whatever you get, make sure it’s a flex frame. I think all the kid size ones are nowadays – I have to wear young girls’ glasses because I am a miniature human and so all mine flex. This is useful as I still tend to yank them off with one hand.
I always have two pair, because my vision is very bad and I cannot function without them. He may be able to get away with only one pair, since it’s only one eye, but it could make his schoolwork harder in the interim when they are being repaired/replaced/go missing. (Please note the “when” in that sentence, it’s important). Or he outgrows them.
I wouldn’t sweat it though even if you only buy one pair: it’s not as though he will be wearing the same frames for many years. Or at least the odds are against it, until he gets to be a little older.
I’m happy that your husband is cool with your son wearing what might be construed by some as “girl glasses.” Keep him.
Another vote for “let him pick.” As repeated above, he’s going to be the one wearing them, so he should pick what’s comfortable (and stylish) to him. Choosing something he doesn’t like is a bad idea–he may not like them to the point where he won’t wear them, and will instead try to strain his eyes across the classroom rather than wear those ugly things mom picked.
If you get the glasses he likes, he’s more likely to wear them. And that’s the point, isn’t it?
At least one of the places where we shopped for glasses, maybe Visionworks, always has a “Buy one pair, get the second pair for free” deal. I’d check for a thing like that and then get a style he likes and a style you like. My main concern with letting him pick would be whether he’d keep wearing them.
Five year old kids really don’t understand the concepts of permanent, at least not in the way that older people do.
Anyway, children tend to lose and break their glasses, so a spare pair is not a bad idea. Does your insurance cover any of the cost?
I wasn’t talking about the prescription! That may, or may not change. I was speaking of the amazing growth spurts a kid goes through from five years old onwards. The frames themselves might not fit, if he grows a lot. That, or, they could get mangled in the rough and tumble too. 
Hope not, those glasses do look sharp, and I bet he’ll be quite nice looking in them!
Get him the red pair, get a copy of the prescription, and order a cheap spare pair in any boring dodgy old style you like off one of the zillions of “eyeglasses for practically nothing” sites. For stodgy grown up events like Christmas dinner, he can wear the stodgy frames. For everyday use, he picks.
You both win, plus you have a spare on hand for lost or broken emergencies.
And, for the record, the answer for next time is “don’t let him try on ANYTHING you can’t live with. You’re the filter, he then gets to choose what’s already passed muster with you. Once you’ve let him try something on, you’re sunk.”
I think the red ones will look great and I can’t wait to see the pictures!
When I was a kid, my mom and grandma always picked out the dark brown tortoiseshell plastic frames for me. I remember being so excited when I finally got to choose my own (pale pink). Grandma looked at me and said, “Huh. Those are better.” :smack:
In the big scheme of things, I don’t think it’s a big deal. He’ll grow out of both the prescription and the frame in short order, I’d guess.
If you’re positively horrified by them, try to find a middle ground. You like the shape, he likes the color. Or offer an array that he can choose from.
Cute little guy. I’d love to see the Full Ralphie on him.
My son has been wearing glasses since four - he is now ten. If he doesn’t like the glasses, they he doesn’t wear the glasses. The wearing of the glasses is really important. Especially the first pair, when you need to establish the habit of getting them on his face.
He’s always picked his own glasses. Sometimes they are glasses I do not like for him.
(Get the insurance - even a careful kid will fall skateboarding and wreck his glasses - we’ve never lost a pair, but we’ve had them broken in skateboarding accidents, run over by a bike (still wonder how that happened), eaten by the dog…)
Huh? Who cares if glasses match your shirt? And I say this as a chick who loves making sure everything “goes”* together. Glasses are a totally separate part of you/your outfit. I’ve had purple plastic frames and I currently have dark red ones. I regularly wear colors that don’t match them and it’s fine.
I say go with the red ones. Then get a cheap pair online, like others have suggested. It’d be a good idea anyway, so he’d have a back up pair in case the others do break and have to be repaired.
- not necessarily “match”, but “go”.