I remember when my parents first realized my brother needed glasses. He was four years old, and my father – an avid baseball fan and lifelong player – was teaching my brother to play catch in the back yard. Try as he might, my brother just couldn’t catch the ball. My father wondered whether the problem was depth-perception. After a trip to the eye doctor, my parents learned their son had a lazy eye. What followed for my brother was a year of wearing an eye-patch – so difficult for a boy starting kindergarten – and a lifelong relationship with glasses.
Looking back, I am amazed at how well my brother and parents made it through that first year. A network of support would have made it so much easier. How glad they would have been if they’d had access to Little Four Eyes – and not just the blog itself, but the community of caring individuals and fantastic kids that Little Four Eyes has brought together.
When I first visited Little Four Eyes, I looked for the type of information my own family could have used so many years ago. What I found was insightful writing designed for parents who have just found out their child needs glasses and a community of families sharing their stories, even their tears, over their child’s vision struggle. Little Four Eyes is well-designed to showcase the best friend of parents everywhere – systematically organized and carefully presented information — probably because its author, Ann Zawistoski [Annz here at BlogCatalog] works as a reference librarian.
When I sought out Ann and her daughter Zoe (whose first pair of glasses at age one inspired Ann to start writing Little Four Eyes), I found them sitting side by side. Ann had her nose buried in a Sookie Stackhouse vampire mystery novel; Zoe was studying the ingredient label on a box of tinkerbell fruit snacks. When I greeted them, they looked over their glasses at me with identical librarianesque expressions (different frames, though.) Fortunately, I had a pocketful of Ghirardelli squares too break the tension. Over chocolate and deliciously decadent pulp fiction, Ann agreed to give me some insight into the Little Four Eyes community.
MM: Tell me about Little Four Eyes. How did it come about? And how it has grown and changed over time?
Ann: I know that having a baby with glasses is relatively minor compared with other things that a parent could be faced with, but it does come with a unique set of challenges that are rarely covered in parenting books.
You know how one of the first baby-proofing projects is to move expensive and breakable things out of the reach of the child? Well, glasses are expensive and breakable, and you have to place them on your child’s face and convince her to leave them on.
I really felt lost those first few months: How many pairs should I buy? What should I do when my daughter threw a tantrum? What should I do with her glasses at daycare? How on earth would I keep track of them when I can’t even keep track of my own? Will people always judge her first by her glasses? I really just wanted to talk to someone who had been there, but I didn’t know anyone who had.
My next impulse was to do some research online, but I just kept coming across websites with advice for parents of older children with glasses, and very little that was targeted to parents of really young kids. I had been keeping a personal blog for over a year at that point, and decided to start a new blog dedicated to talking about parenting toddlers with glasses.
Shortly after I started Little Four Eyes [L4E], my good friend’s 3-year-old was told he’d need glasses, so I invited her to write and made open the invitation for anyone to write for the blog. I knew that what I was going through wasn’t necessarily the same as what others were dealing with, and I didn’t want this to be a blog about my daughter and her glasses. Now we have 11 authors who have written at least one post, and quite a few other posts that readers have emailed me and I’ve posted for them. The blog originally was targeted at parents of toddlers in glasses, but we’ve expanded to cover all young children. I publish a lot more questions from readers than I expected, and I’ve been able to do a few interviews, which has been fun. We’ve published posts by parents of children with many different children’s vision problems – I’ve learned so much from those. But the blog has generally stayed what I intended it to be: a place for parents to meet and talk about the ups and downs, and the big and little things that come with having a child in glasses.
MM: Parents who blog seem to be truly motivated by community — what role does community play on Little Four Eyes, between posters, readers, and commenters, and from family to family?
Ann: The L4E community is one of my absolutely favorite things about the blog. I love how much people are willing to share encouragement and stories and help one another. I don’t think that L4E would have made it without the wonderful and committed readers who contribute so much. There are some people that say that in order to have a successful blog, you have to respond to every comment quickly. I consider it a sign of success that by the time I get to respond to a comment, often one or two readers have already chimed in with their thoughts. I think part of it is that I am not an expert on children’s vision, and neither are any of the other authors. We’re all just parents figuring out our way through this. I try to reinforce that by posing all the questions that come in to the whole group, rather than just trying to answer every one of them myself.
One of my favorite parts of the blog are the “In the beginning” submissions. Anyone can write up the story of how they learned that their child needs glasses and how the experience went for them. I’m a big believer in the power of stories. I think we all want to tell our stories, but we also find comfort in reading stories of others who have been through something similar.
MM: There is a wealth of information on the web for parents to sort through, especially when a child is diagnosed with a medical condition. Sometimes, it can be overwhelming. How do you help parents find the most credible information and sort out the facts that will help their children most?
Ann: Sorting through overwhelming amounts of information and figuring out what is credible is a big part of my day job. I tend to start with the professional medical literature, and go to places like PubMed for actual medical studies, though you need to be practiced at reading medical articles. I also look to professional optometry and ophthalmology societies for information. But as great as the Internet is, it cannot take the place of a medical professional who has met and examined a child. I really encourage parents to ask their own doctors for information, and to really push their doctors to explain things for them. I also encourage parents to seek second opinions if they’re ever uncomfortable with the information they’re getting. As patients, you have a right to know and understand your medical diagnoses and treatments.
MM: Tell me about your favorite part of writing your blog. What drives you to write and keep writing?
Ann: I love the feedback. I love hearing that someone found a particular post or part of the blog to be helpful. And I really love the pictures of the kids.
MM: Are there other bloggers you admire or that inspire you? What are your favorite blog reads?
Ann: I have over 200 blogs in my reader, I’m a big fan of blogs, and they run the gammut from librarianship, to food, to vision and glasses, to just plain silliness. The blogs that I really admire are ones that foster a community to help others.
The one that most inspired me the most is Stirrup Queens. The blog is about infertility, which is something my husband and I dealt with in trying to conceive our daughter, but what her blog does really well is pull together a community of people who are going through, or have gone through the same thing. The community that she helped create is phenomenal and it’s what made me want to start a blog with the goal of creating a community.
I also love Matt, Liz, and Madeline, which is a blog by a father whose wife died shortly after the birth of their daughter. He is extremely honest, but also funny and sincere and somehow manages to be absolutely open about his loss without sounding like he’s mired in it. He has also pulled together an amazing community that does a lot to support other parents who are facing situations similar to his.
For total laugh out loud, inappropriate humor, I adore the Bloggess.
MM: Has participation at BlogCatalog helped you in a particular way? How so? What have you gained from the BlogCatalog relationship?
Ann: I’ve used BlogCatalog quite a bit, especially at first as a sounding board for questions I had about blogging. I’ve also gotten amazing feedback and reviews from some of the members there. I really like reading critiques of my blogs and other people’s as a way to continually improve the blog. I’ve met a couple of bloggers at BlogCatalog who have gone on to guest post on Little Four Eyes. I haven’t had as much time recently to participate in the forum, but I feel like every time I check in, I get more ideas for things to do with my blog.
It was a pleasure getting to know Ann and her blog, Little Four Eyes. She is a perfect example of a blog author creating content and relationships around a specific subject area where information and support were lacking. Ann saw a need and stepped in to fill the void. Her openness to the experiences of her readers has helped foster a true exchange of ideas — something many of us hope to do with our own blogs. So, stop in and see her when you get a chance. You just might come away with Ann’s special gift — vision.
Written by Julia Kelly, a BlogCatalog Blogger Advocate
http://midwestmoms.blogspot.com/
Follow Julia on Twitter
BlogCatalog Spotlight: Little Four Eyes
I remember when my parents first realized my brother needed glasses. He was four years old, and my father – an avid baseball fan and lifelong player – was teaching my brother to play catch in the back yard. Try as he might, my brother just couldn’t catch the ball. My father wondered whether the problem was depth-perception. After a trip to the eye doctor, my parents learned their son had a lazy eye. What followed for my brother was a year of wearing an eye-patch – so difficult for a boy starting kindergarten – and a lifelong relationship with glasses.
When I first visited Little Four Eyes, I looked for the type of information my own family could have used so many years ago. What I found was insightful writing designed for parents who have just found out their child needs glasses and a community of families sharing their stories, even their tears, over their child’s vision struggle. Little Four Eyes is well-designed to showcase the best friend of parents everywhere – systematically organized and carefully presented information — probably because its author, Ann Zawistoski [Annz here at BlogCatalog] works as a reference librarian.
When I sought out Ann and her daughter Zoe (whose first pair of glasses at age one inspired Ann to start writing Little Four Eyes), I found them sitting side by side. Ann had her nose buried in a Sookie Stackhouse vampire mystery novel; Zoe was studying the ingredient label on a box of tinkerbell fruit snacks. When I greeted them, they looked over their glasses at me with identical librarianesque expressions (different frames, though.) Fortunately, I had a pocketful of Ghirardelli squares too break the tension. Over chocolate and deliciously decadent pulp fiction, Ann agreed to give me some insight into the Little Four Eyes community.
MM: Tell me about Little Four Eyes. How did it come about? And how it has grown and changed over time?
Ann: I know that having a baby with glasses is relatively minor compared with other things that a parent could be faced with, but it does come with a unique set of challenges that are rarely covered in parenting books.
You know how one of the first baby-proofing projects is to move expensive and breakable things out of the reach of the child? Well, glasses are expensive and breakable, and you have to place them on your child’s face and convince her to leave them on.
I really felt lost those first few months: How many pairs should I buy? What should I do when my daughter threw a tantrum? What should I do with her glasses at daycare? How on earth would I keep track of them when I can’t even keep track of my own? Will people always judge her first by her glasses? I really just wanted to talk to someone who had been there, but I didn’t know anyone who had.
My next impulse was to do some research online, but I just kept coming across websites with advice for parents of older children with glasses, and very little that was targeted to parents of really young kids. I had been keeping a personal blog for over a year at that point, and decided to start a new blog dedicated to talking about parenting toddlers with glasses.
Shortly after I started Little Four Eyes [L4E], my good friend’s 3-year-old was told he’d need glasses, so I invited her to write and made open the invitation for anyone to write for the blog. I knew that what I was going through wasn’t necessarily the same as what others were dealing with, and I didn’t want this to be a blog about my daughter and her glasses. Now we have 11 authors who have written at least one post, and quite a few other posts that readers have emailed me and I’ve posted for them. The blog originally was targeted at parents of toddlers in glasses, but we’ve expanded to cover all young children. I publish a lot more questions from readers than I expected, and I’ve been able to do a few interviews, which has been fun. We’ve published posts by parents of children with many different children’s vision problems – I’ve learned so much from those. But the blog has generally stayed what I intended it to be: a place for parents to meet and talk about the ups and downs, and the big and little things that come with having a child in glasses.
MM: Parents who blog seem to be truly motivated by community — what role does community play on Little Four Eyes, between posters, readers, and commenters, and from family to family?
Ann: The L4E community is one of my absolutely favorite things about the blog. I love how much people are willing to share encouragement and stories and help one another. I don’t think that L4E would have made it without the wonderful and committed readers who contribute so much. There are some people that say that in order to have a successful blog, you have to respond to every comment quickly. I consider it a sign of success that by the time I get to respond to a comment, often one or two readers have already chimed in with their thoughts. I think part of it is that I am not an expert on children’s vision, and neither are any of the other authors. We’re all just parents figuring out our way through this. I try to reinforce that by posing all the questions that come in to the whole group, rather than just trying to answer every one of them myself.
One of my favorite parts of the blog are the “In the beginning” submissions. Anyone can write up the story of how they learned that their child needs glasses and how the experience went for them. I’m a big believer in the power of stories. I think we all want to tell our stories, but we also find comfort in reading stories of others who have been through something similar.
MM: There is a wealth of information on the web for parents to sort through, especially when a child is diagnosed with a medical condition. Sometimes, it can be overwhelming. How do you help parents find the most credible information and sort out the facts that will help their children most?
Ann: Sorting through overwhelming amounts of information and figuring out what is credible is a big part of my day job. I tend to start with the professional medical literature, and go to places like PubMed for actual medical studies, though you need to be practiced at reading medical articles. I also look to professional optometry and ophthalmology societies for information. But as great as the Internet is, it cannot take the place of a medical professional who has met and examined a child. I really encourage parents to ask their own doctors for information, and to really push their doctors to explain things for them. I also encourage parents to seek second opinions if they’re ever uncomfortable with the information they’re getting. As patients, you have a right to know and understand your medical diagnoses and treatments.
MM: Tell me about your favorite part of writing your blog. What drives you to write and keep writing?
Ann: I love the feedback. I love hearing that someone found a particular post or part of the blog to be helpful. And I really love the pictures of the kids.
MM: Are there other bloggers you admire or that inspire you? What are your favorite blog reads?
Ann: I have over 200 blogs in my reader, I’m a big fan of blogs, and they run the gammut from librarianship, to food, to vision and glasses, to just plain silliness. The blogs that I really admire are ones that foster a community to help others.
The one that most inspired me the most is Stirrup Queens. The blog is about infertility, which is something my husband and I dealt with in trying to conceive our daughter, but what her blog does really well is pull together a community of people who are going through, or have gone through the same thing. The community that she helped create is phenomenal and it’s what made me want to start a blog with the goal of creating a community.
I also love Matt, Liz, and Madeline, which is a blog by a father whose wife died shortly after the birth of their daughter. He is extremely honest, but also funny and sincere and somehow manages to be absolutely open about his loss without sounding like he’s mired in it. He has also pulled together an amazing community that does a lot to support other parents who are facing situations similar to his.
For total laugh out loud, inappropriate humor, I adore the Bloggess.
MM: Has participation at BlogCatalog helped you in a particular way? How so? What have you gained from the BlogCatalog relationship?
Ann: I’ve used BlogCatalog quite a bit, especially at first as a sounding board for questions I had about blogging. I’ve also gotten amazing feedback and reviews from some of the members there. I really like reading critiques of my blogs and other people’s as a way to continually improve the blog. I’ve met a couple of bloggers at BlogCatalog who have gone on to guest post on Little Four Eyes. I haven’t had as much time recently to participate in the forum, but I feel like every time I check in, I get more ideas for things to do with my blog.
It was a pleasure getting to know Ann and her blog, Little Four Eyes. She is a perfect example of a blog author creating content and relationships around a specific subject area where information and support were lacking. Ann saw a need and stepped in to fill the void. Her openness to the experiences of her readers has helped foster a true exchange of ideas — something many of us hope to do with our own blogs. So, stop in and see her when you get a chance. You just might come away with Ann’s special gift — vision.
http://midwestmoms.blogspot.com/
Follow Julia on Twitter