Every mom knows the dilemma of being in a quiet waiting room with a not-so-quiet child. While other patients nervously occupy themselves with the l
atest travel magazines, hoping they’ll be called soon, moms do the doctor’s office dance, trying to get their little ones to act like grown-ups. Waiting rooms host people anxiously anticipating procedures ranging from dental fillings to chemo treatments, immunizations to ultra sounds. What do you do with kiddos when you’re in the doctors’ zone?
Don’t despair. This trauma is treatable.
There are more ways to entertain a child while you wait than just plugging them in to your smart phone. Consider a prescription that might just do the trick.
What to do in the waiting room
- Before you even go, ask yourself if this particular office is a good setting for kids. Some offices aren’t; enlist a relative, swap with a friend, or get a spouse to take time off to help.
- Resist the urge to default to your phone; instead of teaching kids that phones are toys, take a few legitimate toys.
- If the doctor is thinking about little patients, encourage your kids to make use of what is provided. Don’t insist on sitting with a tech toy instead of playing with items that say “welcome.”
- Waiting rooms may not welcome food, but arm yourself with a few books, a game or toy, or simple art supplies.
- Play “I Spy” about things in the room, including colors, shapes, letter sounds, and textures. Be sure to use a considerate, quiet voice.
- Put your tot on your lap; make waiting room time a pleasure for them as you enjoy a little quiet snuggle time.
- Use a magazine to take a tour of other places, read about animals, discuss foods, or looks for key words or letters. Every office has magazines.
- This is a great time to practice money skills. Get out bills or coins (look in the bottom of your bag) and talk about their value, what they would buy, how they relate, and how God might use them.
- Model what it looks like to talk with/reach out to a stranger. Mentor your little one in conversation skills in public places.
- Hide and Seek works well if you’re hiding a penny, a paper clip, or a ring. Stir up your child’s creativity with a simple game.
Deuteronomy challenges parents to make the most of teachable moments as we do life, to use the everyday (even waiting rooms) to reveal the divine. Let’s not opt for the convenient when we can use opportunities to broaden a child’s world and deepen our parent-child bond. “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall Teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise,” (Deut. 6:6-7) and when you sit in the waiting room.
The next time you’re stuck in a waiting room, you may be tempted to keep your little one occupied with something convenient for you. Technical games can be awesome tools and just fun, but think about how else you could redeem the time without tech. What else would your kids experience and learn and practice if they don’t just “plug in?” If we teach kids to default to technical things instead of interacting with the real world around them, they will struggle to engage later on.
If doctor’s office time makes you break out in hives, don’t despair. Use “waiting room” time to build into the life and heart of the little patient in your life.
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