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My mom has beginning stages dementia. She has discovered that breaking her glasses gets some attention. I live with her so I don't know how I can give her anymore attention than I do. She goes to senior center day care for 6 hours 2 days a week. Puzzles are too difficult. She used to like to read but now it's difficult to even follow her favorite show Father Brown.


She's probably bored but breaking her glasses is getting expensive. Any ideas?

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My mother would “lose things” or outright throw them away. Her partial, her glasses, once she even threw her bedspread out her door at the facility. I’m not sure if it was intentional (she was a Drama Queen) or part of her dementia. The only thing I can suggest is supervision. If she needs the glasses for “close work”, well, you said she can’t comprehend books or puzzles so, does she really need them? After the third time my mom lost her’s, I just stopped replacing them. Insurance only covered one replacement pair. Tell her if she breaks them again, she will have to go without. But, you’ll need to be there when she moves around to make sure she doesn’t trip and fall.
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There are some pretty inexpensive glasses on line. All you need it the RX and the measurements to place an order.
How is she breaking them? Can they be glued back together? May not be great but would work in a pinch until new ones arrive. Or if you do order on line order several. Get them all the same so you have "parts" to build new glasses as she breaks other ones.
I would not worry about looks just sturdy, functional frames.
And another though could you get the safety straps that will hold them onto her head, like the ones that are used when fishing or playing sports? That way it will be more difficult for her to get the glasses off to break them. May not be real comfortable at first but she would get used to them.
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Thank you so much for the suggestions. She's been breaking after we go to bed at night. I will try to supervise more.
(duh? this is why I like reading this forum)
I can take them with me to my room. She doesn't use them to go to bathroom at night although now that she knows I'm taking them she may suddenly start to "need"
It appears to me she's actually just taking the arms and breaking them off. Another time they were broke in half at the bridge.
I'll keep online ordering in my bag of resources.
On a side note. I feel so sad that my Mom seems to enjoy going to eye doctor or any doctor for attention. Doctors these days don't have the time to visit with older folks the way they used to when my mom was a nurse. She graduated nursing school in 1948.
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Glasses are cheap online. Like less than $10 a pair cheap. Less than that when there are on sale. Just type in her prescription on the website, pay $10 and you'll have a new pair in a week or two. Order multiple pairs and stock up. Here are a couple of places.

https://www.zennioptical.com/
https://www.goggles4u.com/

That's if these are prescription glasses. If they are generic reading glasses, try a dollar store. They are $1 each there.
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Charlotte117 Mar 2019
I can't believe $10 a pair cheap! Thanks for websites. She'll get a few new pair :)
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