To wonder why the whole family need a fun day out at outpatients?

[Welshmaenad]

I'm at fracture clinic, on my own (sob!) yet every other patient seems to be accompanied by at least three family members. Not only is the main waiting area packed but as patients are called through they ALL get up and trek into the very limited clinical waiting area. I'm currently standing up because a small boy in plaster has been followed I to clinical waiting by mum, dad, small sibling, baby sibling in pram and someone I presume is Aunt Maud or possibly a middle aged woman they found on the street and dragged along for the party.

Surely one companion is sufficient in all but the most exceptional of circumstances?? What's the appeal of an orthopaedic clinic waiting room when clinic is running an hour late? What is WRONG with these folk?

When I had my first scan the woman in front of me in the queue had about eight relatives with her.

The other pregnant women had to stand...

I work in A+E as it's exactly the bloody same! They look all offended when you kick them out to do a treatment.
The worse is when they drag their poor dc out of bed at 3 am, understandable if you have to bring them but when you have three other family members sat there, why on earth couldn't the poor kids be left at home with one of them???

YANBU, I often think this at our doctors. Clearly one parent plus siblings may be unavoidable. I always wonder why the extra people can't look after the other kids so only one parent needs to stay with the kid being treated.

YANBU a&e is also like this. One person with you for support fine but why does it need to be a huge family outing?

I'm sorry but this made me cry laughing!

Yanbu, dhs family do this. When his grandparents hear you are going to the hospital for an appointment they want to come. They tried to tag along to ds hearing check when he was tiny, I was so confused luckily dh sees the madness in it.

We were almost guilty of this. But 2 kids needing hearing tests on the same day - neither big enough to be left in the waiting room alone OR sensible enough to sit silently during the test Therefore requiring 2 parents. We've avoided because dd's appointment has been moved to another hospital 20 miles away.

UANBU

A few weeks ago I was sat waiting with my sister for her scan and there was a family in who included
The pregnant girl
Her partner
Her mam
Her nan
Her MIL
And her cousin.
Took up half the bloody seats then after they came out from the scan room with the photos (only pregnant girl,DP and DM aloud in scan room) they sat back down and her family presented her with flowers, vouchers, money, a tens machine and a couple of other presents. that I couldn't see even though I was having a neb

Everyone else in the waiting room was like wtf?

I don't get this either. What I found very odd was the entire family trekking along for a pregnancy GTT - if the Dad was available to look after older children, then why on earth do they all need to come along for what is a really boring 2 hour sit around. And take up the entire tiny waiting room where I was looking forward to a couple of hours reading my book in peace.

I don't understand it either. But when we took the cat to the vet when we were kids, it was a family outing (one of the few times we all went out together). Mind you I grew up in a small town in the West Midlands, seeing the cat have a thermometer up its arse was about as exciting as it got entertainment wise.

YABU - Think of the poor family.
They need to find something to do for when it's not the day for the whole extended family to do a supermarket shop. A trip to the fracture clinic sounds perfect.
Hope you're out of there soon.

My mum is like this. Drives me crazy.

That said, I'm taking my brother to the fracture clinic next week during Easter holidays with 3 kids in tow.
I'm dreading it.

But I won't be in the waiting room with him, I'll be trying to entertain them in the cafe and spending all my money

Compos! - brilliant.

I even think this at the supermarket. Two patents plus whiny kids = someone take the kids to the bloody park. My kids never go to the supermarket as I am religious about online shopping and hugely surprised at all the steps involved in the rare occasion I do it ....
My kids will probably have to live in some kind of halfway house when they are older because of my failure to teach them basic tasks of self-care.

I swear I spent most of my childhood in Halfords where the only amusement was looking at the metallic car spray sample display and the Hanes Car Manuals. But at least my Mum sent me off on my own with my Dad so she could get a bit of peace....

Haggis, I was just about to write something similar about the supermarket. Mum, dad, 3, 4, 5 kids, granny, grandad and another random adult or two as well sometimes. Why???

If its anything like the family who I know that do this it's because they haven't got anything better else to do

Had this in A&E a while ago: two bored, fractious, active, LOUD young boys with their mum and dad. Only one of the boys needed to be there, and one of the parents. The parents didn't deal well with the boredom, either, just told them to sit still, which of course they didn't.

Everyone in the queue for x-ray breathed a huge sigh of relief when they finally went...

When we went back to the paediatric waiting room to wait for DD's x-ray to come through, there they were again...

So YANBU.

Hmm. We're sometimes guilty of this. I don't drive and sometimes I need DH to take me to appointments (especially ones about where I'm having trouble walking and the alternative is either getting there nearly 2 hours early and thus taking extra time off work on the every-two-hours bus or walking a mile from the more frequent bus). But as DH takes care of DD, she has to come along too. I feel a bit silly sometimes (and sort of wish they'd bugger off to the supermarket next door while I wait, but DH likes to wait).

Maybe they were on a whole family outing when the accident occurred?

(But then, why not send extraneous people to the nearest coffee shop? Or to run around in the hospital grounds if small and fidgety?)

I have extreme anxiety and mobility needs too, so need my dh with me. A creche for the kids would be great, but they are sadly lacking in most hospitals. So, all appointments for me are a family trip.

The craziest one I have ever seen was a woman having a needle biopsy, breastfeeding her 3yo from the other side at the same time to keep him quiet...

We've been to A&E / minor injuries as a family. A young DC who's injured. Me because I'm his mum, and he'd be distraught without me. My DH because I am disabled and don't drive. Other DC because there's no-one else to leave them with.

Also been to hospital as a family several times, when one DC required repeat follow-up investigations with paediatrician, and both of us wanted to be there to listen to results and make decisions - obvs other DC also had to come.

We do keep them entertained and don't let them take up extra chairs though.

YANBU.
I can perhaps understand the whole shooting match getting excited about a scan appointment and wanting to be there but what's wrong with waiting in the coffee shop or something ffs?
Dsis works in a renal clinic and routinely extended family groups (12 folk plus patient for example) pitch up for the dialysis session. There is nowt for them to see as they don't get into the clinical area so they take over the waiting area/corridors for what?

AuntieDee

We do keep them entertained and don't let them take up extra chairs though

That's very different to letting them run wild and get in people's way

It's a follow up outpatient Stella not for immediate traumas, so at least a few days notice of appointments.

Beyond I'd file you firmly in the extenuating circumstances camp, but most of them- meh! Why does a child need more than one parent in the clinical area? It's nonsensical.

Of course part of me is slightly "oh these families must love each other A LOT MORE than we do" when I see them out, en masse, at every dental, medical and shopping trip.