Parents Who Buy Glasses for Their Children and Parents Who Don't

I feel like there are generally two types of parents who come in to buy glasses for their children.
One type comes in with a sincere desire to buy them because their child needs them.
And the other type comes in reluctantly because they were told by the school or an eye doctor that they were necessary.

I think both of those are correct. Since they are coming to buy something essential, both are right.
What isn't right is the pattern that is neither of those.

Once, I assisted a boy who was about to graduate from high school.
He said that when he went to driving school to get his license, he was told, "You can't pass the test because your vision isn't good enough."

When I measured his prescription, it was -6.00 in both eyes.
Living with the naked eye like this is impossible. He could only see clearly up to about 17 cm from his eyes. In other words, he had lived his entire daily life with almost everything blurred.
Moreover, even with -6.00 glasses, he could barely manage to see 0.7. That 0.7 is the passing line for a driver's license.

What were his parents doing while I was measuring his prescription? I could clearly see them in the corner of my vision.
They were outside the shop having a smoke break. Both of them. And they did so continuously for the roughly 20 minutes it took to measure.
Anyone who has smoked cigarettes should understand this. That's not enough time for just one or two cigarettes. You could smoke four or five.
So that's it. Is that why this boy, even though he's a high school student, smells like cigarettes? Was it their smell?

When I asked him, he said his vision had been rated C since elementary school, and he had been told he needed glasses.
But he was never bought any, and it seems he was only finally getting them now that he was getting his driver's license.

I felt an intense sense of frustration. The helplessness of not being able to say anything. The helplessness of not being able to make his vision 1.0.

I can't definitively say what caused his -6.00 prescription or his 0.7 vision. So, I can't say,
"Your myopia progressed because you guys didn't buy him glasses sooner!"
"It's your fault he can only see 0.7!"
I can't say that.

However, at the very least, if they had given him the gift of "seeing" much earlier, he would have been able to see his own face and his friends' faces clearly, the blackboard would have been easier to see, and if he played baseball or soccer, the ball would have been easier to see.

He might have been surrounded by more friends,
He might have been passionate about some field of study,
He might have excelled in sports.
I am still angry at the adults who traded those possibilities for mere smoke.

When parents buy glasses for their children, they aren't just buying an object called glasses.
They are buying their child's future along with them. That is what I believe.

Isn't that the greatest gift of all? Isn't that wonderful?