Mommy The Journalist: January 2019

As the mother of an only child, I get a lot of unsolicited questions and comments about our family's choice to not have another baby. It always starts with a question along the lines of "When can we expect baby number two? or When are you going to give Alexis a little brother/sister?" What follows is always incredibly awkward and uncomfortable. I say we're not having another baby, which usually elicits an incredulous look followed by a knowing laugh or smile and something along the lines of "You'll change your mind one day."

I know mine isn't the only single-child family that deals with the never-ending questioning of when we'll be adding another name to our family tree. That's why I'm sharing my story - in the hopes that it will help open the eyes of those who can't resist the urge to ask the question we dread hearing.

I'm not ashamed of my story, but at the same time I don't feel the need to explain our decision to only have one child to every single person who asks. And on the few occasions where I have shared, it hasn't made much of a difference. I still feel the judgment, the shame, as if somehow our choice is selfish and wrong, or that we didn't think things through. Except we did.

Most people don't know about my difficult pregnancy, birth and post-partum experience. I don't tell them about the dangerously high blood pressure or how my water broke three weeks before my due date but yet I never went into labor. We don't talk about my emergency c-section or the week I spent in the hospital trying to get well. I don't say the words Preeclampsia or vasectomy.

Now, nearly four years later, our daughter is thriving. She may not have siblings, but she has cousins and friends at school. We don't struggle to provide for her as we might if we had more children. She's not growing up spoiled or lonely.

We didn't start our parenting journey with the intention of having only child, but that's the hand we were dealt, and at the end of the day we'd rather be a happy family of three than risk my health and that of an unborn child.

The truth is it's none of your business if a couple wants to have one kid or ten. There's no one-size-fits-all formula for creating a family. What's right for your family won't necessarily work for mine or anyone else's for that matter. And no, your opinion really doesn't matter.

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As a work-from-home mom, I spend at least four days a week at my computer. During the time I worked in television news, I spent eight-plus hours a day five days a week either at a computer or in a control room full of screens. Not counting the time I've spent working on this blog, that's nearly 2,500 days spent staring at a screen. So needless to say, my eyes are tired, especially at the end of the day. Some afternoons it's so bad I can't focus my eyes enough to read the guide on the TV. So last month I decided to try a pair of blue light blocking glasses.

There are lot of blue light blocking glasses on the market, so I spent a lot of time reading reviews and comparing prices. I wanted something that worked but wasn't expensive. I ultimately decided on the LifeArt Blue Light Blocking Glasses. They have more than 300 reviews on Amazon, most of which are positive, have an overall 4.5 star rating, and only cost about $20.

I'm a Prime member, so I got my glasses in two days. They came with a hard protective case, cleaning cloth, blue light blocking card and light that I couldn't figure out how to use), and a screwdriver that I probably will never use.

LifeArt claims their computer reading glasses relieve symptoms of eye fatigue, reduce headache symptoms, and improve sleep. They're also supposed to be scratch and smudge resistant.

I've been using these glasses for about a month now and can definitely tell a difference. Usually after a couple of hours working my eyes start to burn and I start to feel a little headachey (thank goodness for my daith piercings). Since I started wearing my LifeArt Blue Light Blocking Glasses, my eye strain has been drastically reduced. I no longer experience burning or tension when I spend all day on my computer. They reduce glare, are lightweight, and cute to boot! I've actually forgotten I was wearing them and left the house more than once with them still on. I haven't noticed any change in my sleep, but I try not to be on my computer right before bed anyway.

As for the claims of being anti-scratch and anti-smudge, I haven't had any scratches, but they do get smudges, especially from fingerprints. The little cloth that came with them gets rid of any smudges with a little dedication.

In conclusion, if you spend hours a day in front of a computer and have tired eyes at the end of the day, you should seriously try a pair of blue light blocking glasses.

This post is not sponsored but does contain affiliate links, meaning if you shop by clicking on one of the links embedded in this post, I will earn a small commission.