At dinner last night – it was a celebration of the birthday of one of M’s aunts – I noticed that one of M’s little cousins, J, who is six (I think) has recently started wearing glasses.
“How is J with his glasses?” I asked his mum, expecting her to say that he hates wearing them and has to be coaxed and bribed to keep them on.
“Oh, he loves them,” she said. “All the other kids at school think they’re cool and wish they wore glasses too.”
“What?!” I exclaimed. “It wasn’t cool when I was in school!” I was mortified when I started wearing glasses, aged around nine or thereabouts. I was just about to say that it must be something younger children think is cool, when J’s mum continued: “Oh yes, glasses are cool. S [J’s sister who is 12] thinks it is really unfair that he gets to wear glasses and she doesn’t!”
Well, whaddaya know – so glasses are cool now, at least among some children of primary school age. I wonder why this is so. J’s mum’s not sure why this is the case – her theory is that the bespectacled boy wizard Harry Potter has something to do with it.