Dear Pediatrician,
I know you do very important work like saving the lives of children and stuff like that. I also know that you are very smart because you went to school for 25 years or something. Waiting at a doctor’s office is a necessary evil. I know this, too. I do.
What I do not understand is why you insist on calling me back into the exam room (that measures exactly 8 square feet) when you know it will be another hour before the doctor will see my child. It is mean. It gets my hopes up, and then causes me to spend an hour keeping my less-than-2-year-old son off chairs that have wheels and dirty throw-up floors. I would rather wait in the spacious waiting room. At least there are more toys out there. And better magazines.
I also do not understand why you keep the urine sample cups in the bottom drawers of said exam rooms. My son thinks they are Tupperware. He stacks them. And licks them. I know they are clean, but this is not ok with me. I try to keep him out of these drawers, but it is difficult to keep him occupied for an hour short of letting him throw tongue depressors in the garbage. Which we have done. And I am sorry.
I do want to thank you, however, for having the “Note to Parents” posted on the back of the door. It keeps me up on my anagram skills. (Parents: part, rent, sent, ten, net, star, trap, nest, rant…) I think I’m up to 25 words. At least that’s all I can figure without writing them down.
Anyway, I don’t want to be part of the problem, I’d rather be part of the solution. That’s why I propose it be made illegal to force parents with children under 5 to wait at the doctors office.
Thank you and have a nice day.
Emily
Amen, sister. Amen. Seriously, I have waited almost an hour before in that little room.. listening to other kids scream while getting shots…no fun.
The crinkly paper ending up on the floor.. ugh.
very clever & funny! it is worse when it is the OB/GYN and you have to wear the paper gown in the freezing room and wait for an hour!!! Seriously, I switched Drs just because of the whole "waiting" thing. nice blog.
LOL. I wouldn’t want my kid licking the urine sample cups either, who cares if they’re clean! It’s just the thought of it. I love your blog layout by the way
Yes, I agree.
This happened to me one too many times. I actually fell asleep on the examing table waiting for my gynecologist to arrive.
He asked me…”how are you”. I replied…”do you really want to know?”. He did, so I proceeded to tell him about the waiting in the waiting room and the waiting in the examing room. He apologized and told me to call in advance next time and he would instruct his front end staff to let me know if his appointments were behind schedule and how far behind they were.
You might give this a try.
Congrats on your feature today!
So true! Somehow you letter should be the preamble to the MOMMY Constitution! Congrats on your SITS day!
I just wrote a similar post about this last week. I had to wait 2.5 hours with my two year old who was climbing off the walls by then. My husband actually walked out of the ENT’s office with her one day after being in the not-at-all-kid-proofed exam room with her for an hour. I’ve gotten to the point where I just let her destroy whatever is in their room. Their cost of doing business and making me wait.
Oh that is so true and so grulling to deal with. I’m on your side!!! Maybe they think that with that wait in the room it will make you think twice about going back.
Congrats on being featured blogger today on SITS!!!
hah…I’ve never broken it down like that…but dang woman you are RIGHT ON!
haha! I found you through SITSas! i am to have a baby due beg. of dec. I hate just having to wait by my lonesome in those little rooms. I know now why they don’t keep clocks in those rooms…
I am not looking forward to try to wait and keep a child entertained too!
Why? Why do they always insist on crawling on the dirty throw up floors? It makes me cringe. At the very least they should offer parents a mild sedative upon admittance to the exam room. Not for the kids, mind you, just to take my edge off.
Hee! This is so funny, and true! I have twins, and they always seem to gang up against me when we’re trapped in the exam room. One will attempt to scale the exam table while the other pushes the chair over to the counter in order to climb up there. I feel like I’m always pulling kids off the window sills or ceiling fans by the time the doctor gets in!
I have also blown up the gloves into little balloons. And imagine how much fun it is to be one adult with 2 or kids in those little rooms?!
I try and get the first appointment of the day for regular appointments but even then, I end up waiting on occasion!
May I sign that petition? AMEN, sista! Congrats on your day. I LOVE your blog design.
Amen! This HAD to be said. I have the same complaint every time I go. I finally just started letting the baby cry so that they would come in faster. It’s ridiculous and what IS the point?? The lobby area is so much more comfortable!!
AMEN!!!
Happy SITS day!
If we get stuck in that cold little room for longer than 10 minutes, I let me kid have her way. Our dr office was smart and locked the drawers, but not the under sink section. If they want to trap us in there, then they can deal with the consequences!
Do you care if I print this off and send it to my doctor??? It seems like my kids always find there way over too the stir-up thingy’s. And it’s all I can do not to go play solitaire on the computer thats sitting right smack in front of me.
Amen Sista!
Heck I get bored in those rooms and I’m 31!
I’m so with you on this one!
LOL, not kid related, but one day I took my mother in law to the RA, i got their 2 minutes late and she called to tell them she would be a few mins late. When she got there they made it a point to say, “your appointment was at 12:30″… however she still had to wait for 20 min to see the doctor. Do you know how bad I wanted to go to the front desk and say, “Excuse Me! Her appointment was at 12:30!!!” UGH!
I think everyone can identify. Very frustrating.
Congrats on your SITS day. And AMEN on the post!
I think that after waiting more than an hour they should have to start paying us!!!
Thank GOD they normally don’t allow children to come with you to the GYN appointments! HAHA! My little man gets into everything too and he’s almost…33! LMFAO!
Happy SITS day!
Happy SITS day to you!
I agree on this one. We can usually bet on a 2 hour visit before we get out of our docs office. And that is if we are one of the first ones there!
I hate the doctor’s office, half the time I go in there I know what I am sick from. Just give me what I need!
Amen to that!!
Happy SITS day; bask in your comment love!!
Amen!
Although I will say that I really like the new pediatrician they go to where we wait fewer than five minutes up front AND in back.
And I love that they provide a multitude of kid friendly books on a low shelf under the exam table. Except for the problem that the wee ones then want me to read the WHOLE time we’re in the office, including when the doctor wants to talk to me.
amen SIStah
I’m right there with you!!!
Double Amen…
I once handed my Dr a bill, for my time spent waiting an hour and 10 minutes past my appointment.
he deducted it off my bill
I don’t have kids so pardon me for asking what’s this 8×8 room that you are forced to wait in?
Karen, did the doctor really deduct the worth of your waiting time from his bill?
I know exactly what you mean! You’d think they’d know to keep the pediatrician’s office stocked with toys, not just the waiting room! And that wait time really is unbearable.
I am totally agreeing with you on this one,
It's especially hard when you have 2 to contain & keep entertained.
They really should think about us a little bit more.
I always hated this when the kids were younger. I had 4 little ones and it was chaos. They should not put you in the room till the Doc is ready to walk in. Oh how easy that would make life.
Over from SITS… sorry I’m a day late, but late is the story of my life. Tip for next doctor’s visit: I keep a red permanent marker in my purse and while I was waiting in the exam room, I corrected every misspelled word in their office signs. (I’m a former newspaper editor) Ex: If you leave, you loose your place in line. [Lose not loose]
They hated me after that.
Oh gosh. Bad memories were coming back to me as I read this. This is a pet peeve of mine and I easily recall when I was deathly ill, well, not deathly but….and they brought me back there where I waited for another 45 minutes. It felt like 3 hours. I can remember the steam coming out of my ears, the tears welling up in my eyes & the redness on my face. I told the doc how I felt, on all levels, when he came in
that was hilarious!! I so know what you mean!! With 4 kids {ages 3 and under} we are always at the doctor. And my oldest has the fear of elevators and tight exam rooms!