The photo is from February of this year. Bad quality because again I am using a cell phone picture. Kavi had a check up appt at the pediatrician's office. He had a bad cold a few weeks earlier but was fine by the time we went for his follow up visit. He also had turned 2 years old the day before!I like the pediatrician's office we go to except for one thing- the often long wait!! I really feel that taking your baby, toddler, or child to the doctor is an endurance challenge. That is how I think of it. I have it all thought out in my mind. I'm crazy! :) This could be a game show, if it weren't for the psychological damage that could possibly occur. :P So no, I don't actually support it being a real game show.
My challenge has often gone a little something like this:
Doctor's Office Endurance Challenge
Phase 1: wait in the main waiting room.
Everything goes fine. My son is entertained enough just looking at other children or at the fish tank in the wall(pretty cool) or the movie playing, if one is playing. I keep whatever toys I brought with us tucked away in my purse for later. We get called in after maybe 10-15 minutes. "Oh, not bad" I think in my head.
Phase 2: The first 30 minutes waiting in the small examination room.
Everything goes fine. My son is entertained enough just looking at other children or at the fish tank in the wall(pretty cool) or the movie playing, if one is playing. I keep whatever toys I brought with us tucked away in my purse for later. We get called in after maybe 10-15 minutes. "Oh, not bad" I think in my head.
Phase 2: The first 30 minutes waiting in the small examination room.
It's time to bring out the toys! Maybe even one by one. Let's keep the distraction and fun going as long as possible. My son does things like in the photo above. Playing with cars, lining them up on the examining bed, pushing them over the curves, pushing them off onto the floor, etc.
But then...things start getting a little harder near the end of this 30 minutes. The toys lose their thrill, and your child wonders why you need to stay in this small windowless room forever.
Phase 3: Any minutes following the first 30, for a total of up to 60 minutes.(yes that has happened to me before).
Your child starts getting irritable, saying "out" or " door" every few minutes, trying to leave the room. Then they want to be held. You open the door to be a part of the outside world for a minute wondering if you were forgotten. You weren't. This is just how it is. Your blood pressure starts going up, you start sweating from trying to keep your toddler entertained(it's NOT working) or in your arms and you just want to lay down on the dirty floor and think of a happy place where children don't have to wait in a small examination room for so long. And now you are so hungry because you forgot to stick a banana in your purse to hold you over during the wait.
Suddenly, there is a knock at the door, and all the color comes back into your face and into the room as the Doctor enters. There is an end in sight! Now, if it's also the day for routine shots, you add one more level to this endurance challenge and you become a total warrior by the end. When you finally leave the office, you feel part of the world again and freeeeeeeeee.
If you can make it through this endurance challenge, you can do anything you set your mind to!!
But then...things start getting a little harder near the end of this 30 minutes. The toys lose their thrill, and your child wonders why you need to stay in this small windowless room forever.
Phase 3: Any minutes following the first 30, for a total of up to 60 minutes.(yes that has happened to me before).
Your child starts getting irritable, saying "out" or " door" every few minutes, trying to leave the room. Then they want to be held. You open the door to be a part of the outside world for a minute wondering if you were forgotten. You weren't. This is just how it is. Your blood pressure starts going up, you start sweating from trying to keep your toddler entertained(it's NOT working) or in your arms and you just want to lay down on the dirty floor and think of a happy place where children don't have to wait in a small examination room for so long. And now you are so hungry because you forgot to stick a banana in your purse to hold you over during the wait.
Suddenly, there is a knock at the door, and all the color comes back into your face and into the room as the Doctor enters. There is an end in sight! Now, if it's also the day for routine shots, you add one more level to this endurance challenge and you become a total warrior by the end. When you finally leave the office, you feel part of the world again and freeeeeeeeee.
If you can make it through this endurance challenge, you can do anything you set your mind to!!
And that is how I turn crazy long waits at Doctor's office into a
weird reality game show in my head. Thank God Kavi doesn't have
to go as often anymore after turning 2!
Do you have a zany, crazy, or sweet flashback to share? Join in! Click the button below!
weird reality game show in my head. Thank God Kavi doesn't have
to go as often anymore after turning 2!
Do you have a zany, crazy, or sweet flashback to share? Join in! Click the button below!
6 comments:
Oh man I hate that! And my kid always goes straight for the tongue depressors or whatever they happen to keep in those shiny glass jars. Or the doctor's twirly stool. And I let her play on it, and she falls off right before the nurse walks in, and I get chastised for letting her play on it. *sigh*
Ewww, I HATE waiting in doctors offices! So boring.
hah! love the game show comparison! I have been along for one or two of the grueling wait times and it is torturous!
You know me Christina... I let Olivia play WITH me in the drawers... I'm A GREAT "share-er"!! HA! I figure that I am a little ADD so imagine when a little one comes in and has to wait that long.
You would think that a doctor would like to be in and out... schedule and appointment for 11 and be there at 11:45?
Next time I go, I am going to run an hour late and then demand that they just fit me in because of all the time that I have had to wait over the years. THANKS FOR THE IDEA!! Olivia isn't even sick right now.. but, I think I'm going to make an appointment anyway!
Love you!
I haven't had to take a kid to the doctor in a long time but...it is also an endurance challenge to wait in a doctor's office with your elderly mother. Minus the toys in the purse, it isn't too much different.
I will never forget the time that my husband was away on an assignment, and both my daughter and I came down with strep throat (and an added sinus infection for me). I had to take the both of us to a walk in clinic, and we had to wait in the waitin room for THREE hours. During that time, my daughter managed to throw her brand new toy bear into the public toilet. WOW, no way, was she getting that back. Straight into the garbage. And then to top it off, she threw a tantrum in the loaded waiting room. I started crying in front of everybody, my throat on fire and my fever rising.
Worst drs appt ever.
Post a Comment