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Forum -> Working Women
Inflexible job, how do you take kids to appointments?



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amother
OP


 

Post Thu, Oct 14 2021, 3:15 pm
If both you and and dh have inflexible jobs with little leave, how do you manage all the appointments??

My job expects me to do most appointments outside of work time. My leave goes to all the holidays. My kids have endless appointments: dentist, doctor, orthodontist, eye doctor, other specialists. It's never ending and it's multiple appointments for each kid. How do you all manage this???
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imaima




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 14 2021, 3:17 pm
amother [ OP ] wrote:
If both you and and dh have inflexible jobs with little leave, how do you manage all the appointments??

My job expects me to do most appointments outside of work time. My leave goes to all the holidays. My kids have endless appointments: dentist, doctor, orthodontist, eye doctor, other specialists. It's never ending and it's multiple appointments for each kid. How do you all manage this???


I don't take such a job.
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amother
Cyan


 

Post Thu, Oct 14 2021, 3:18 pm
6 months in advance book appts. Or as early as possible. Get first or last appt of the day.
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amother
Cyan


 

Post Thu, Oct 14 2021, 3:19 pm
imaima wrote:
I don't take such a job.


The only point of such a post is to make ppl feel miserable about their life situations.

I don’t see how it is helpful.
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amother
DarkCyan


 

Post Thu, Oct 14 2021, 3:21 pm
You need to be super organized to make it work. My kids' dentist has some late afternoon slots (5:30 p.m.) but they book up really quickly, so I make those appointments 6 months in advance. Of course if they have a cavity there are less options for the filling, but I have never taken off of work for a routine cleaning. Same for their annual checkups by the pediatrician. I also make appointments on Friday afternoons, since I only work until 2 p.m. on Friday year round.

Specialist are harder since you have to take whatever appointment you can get. My husband and I switch off.
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watergirl




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 14 2021, 3:29 pm
What are your work hours?

When I have had jobs like this, I actually chose my kids doctors based on who had hours that worked with my work schedule. It was not ideal but I had no choice.
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amother
DarkGreen


 

Post Thu, Oct 14 2021, 3:52 pm
As others have posted, you find doctors and others who have schedules that might work better. If you book the first appointment of the day, the changes are that you will be more in control of how long the appointment takes.

You would also switch it up so that you are sharing the burden of appointment schedules with your husband.

Also it might be possible to hire someone to take children to some appointments where it isn't necessary for you to be present. For example, I would think many kinds of dental appointments don't really need a parent present unless it is necessary for emotional support. You could have all the teeth cleaned at the same time for example and hire someone to take them there and back and stay for the appointment. Obviously there are some kinds of appointments where a parent needs to be present.

ETA - I realize that it was said somewhat in jest but some caretakers (generally women) do look for jobs which offer some degree of flexibility for the period when they need to take kids to many appointments. If a job is high paying enough, I know people who have their very well paid nannies do it - but these are professional type of nannies and not a random poorly paid type of babysitter and so they can be trusted to deal with medical information for a child.
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amother
OP


 

Post Thu, Oct 14 2021, 4:30 pm
Thank you everyone for your helpful tips! I can definitely try to find specialist who have after hour appointments.
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amother
Fern


 

Post Thu, Oct 14 2021, 6:07 pm
It's so hard. My kids always end up behind on appointments because I can't keep up. We use a dentist who I don't really like because he has Sunday hours.
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chocolate moose




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 14 2021, 7:51 pm
I went to local drs with hours that we could handle. My kids didn't see an orthodontist. DD didn't get her teeth straightened until she was an adult and could go herself.
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thunderstorm




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 14 2021, 7:57 pm
It’s hard . We had well visits today with two kids before I started work this morning . I did start work a bit late but not terrible.

I have another well visit set up for Monday for another child.

We did dentist appointments the last few Sundays.

I used to schedule therapy appointments for Fridays right after work.

It’s very hectic and not easy and this is with having flexible jobs so I could imagine the stress of all the planning with inflexible jobs.
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imaima




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 2:44 am
amother [ Cyan ] wrote:
The only point of such a post is to make ppl feel miserable about their life situations.

I don’t see how it is helpful.


There is nothing in the OP that indicates that therr is absolutely no other jobs for them at the market.

How often are people's lives so utterly inflexible that none of the parents can find a flexible job?

And by flexible I mean, having a couple of hours of breathing space a couple times a month.

Really rare nowadays.

I have tons of friends with kids who take jobs and then wonder how they will manage all the appointments (because it just didn't occur to them in advance)
Then they come to me and ask how we "do it all".
The answer is, we choose jobs that are compatible with appointments. And there are not a ton of them, but you only need one.

And it helps these friends to see that we didn't choose these jobs in vacuum but made medical appointments a part of the equation.
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