Last edited Tue Jul 15, 2025, 04:44 PM - Edit history (1)
I am sure ALL you medical professionals do the best you possibly can under the worst of circumstances. I greatly admire and respect all of you docs, PA’s, and nurses here on DU. Yay!
That said, I am reminded of my own situation many years ago.
I had 3 kids under the age of 6 and was a stay-at-home mom. Despite what JD Vance thinks, not all of us had grandparents, aunts, uncles, or other extended family living nearby who were able and willing to babysit the siblings when one of them had a doctor’s appointment. I certainly had no family help whatsoever and it didn’t know anyone I trusted to stay with my kids “on call” since I moved to a new area when first one was born. I knew nobody. So, if I wanted to go anywhere, doctor, grocery store, drugstore, etc. I had to take all 3 of them with me or wait til my husband got home which was too late for most medical offices. Our pediatrician was wonderful with extra kids along, she and her staff were used to it, providing toys and books in each exam room to entertain the siblings. All three of them left her office with a Popsicle every time.
Thank God my gynecologist had Saturday hours, although one time I had to see her for an urgent problem and it was a weekday and I had just my first son at the time, he was 3 and 1/2. I just figured I’d have to chain him to a chair in the waiting room or something. I brought some of his favorite toys along.
The two office workers were so nice about it when I asked them sheepishly if someone could please keep an eye on him in the waiting room. The one woman let him come back into the office and bang on an old typewriter and the other one gave him a set of plastic dinosaurs and by the time I got out of the exam room he was so occupied he didn’t realize I was all done and he didn’t want to go home!
Another thought that came to my mind was that maybe a mom trying to have a doctor look at all her kids at once might not have insurance and might not have the money for separate appointments. Maybe she has to take time off from her job and doesn’t have any PTO. For sure it inconveniences the doc and staff and takes time away from other patients. But some moms don’t know what else to do so they try this. I blame our society for some of these things. It isn’t easy. America does not make being a mom of small children very easy. So, that is all I wanted to say. Love you all.
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