Why is a trip to the walk-in centre a family outing?

[freeAnneBoleyn]

For some?

I went yesterday. Looked full to bursting when I came in, not a single free chair. Looked to be a lot of families with one sick/injured member, with both parents and other children in attendance. Why? If you have two parents why in God’s name would you drag your other child to sit amongst lurgy ridden patients for four hours and have to worry about keeping them amused as well?!

I eventually got a chair when someone else got called up- I had a fractured shoulder it turned out so not desperately ill obviously but still in pain and was anticipating, correctly as it turned out, a very very long wait.

Worst was family of five opposite- one feverish looking child asleep on mum’s lap, two older children and a dad. He’d brought sweets and sandwiches for everyone but the kids were bored shitless which led to the inevitable handing over of a phone to mess around on with the horrible pingy sounds of the game they played audible to everyone. Another toddler was left to just roam about, and started running up and down.

It made for an even more unpleasant waiting experience for people who are in pain and sick, exposing healthy children to germs, and bloody boring for them too.

I am NOT judging any parent that had no choice to bring other children along, but if there are two of you...why do it??

I don't really get this thing about paying so much attention to what strangers are doing though.

Most of us don't pay attention to others who are polite and peaceful. If you can't hear yourself think because kids are running amok or someone is watching videos out loud on their phone, how can you not pay attention? It's bloody annoying! I wish people who did these things would pay attention to others as you would realise how anti-social you are being!

Yes, this gets my goat.

I was in s walk in centre similar, and loads of families taking up space. Then two older ladies sat down after booking in and starting having a fucking picnic 🙄

If I was ill enough to go to A&E I think my DH would want to stay with me.

The only time I've been was for DD who had trouble breathing > if he had been there I'd have thought he'd have maybe come as well as he'd have been so worried.

And I would have said yes of course. It woudn't have occured to me that it woudl have been selfish for him to come (and by necessity, our DD as well).

As it was he was at work and DD1 at nursery so phew, eh, otherwise we'd have got some serious side-eye in the waiting room (not that we were there long!).

If I were very ill DH would want to stay with me I don't see what's selfish about that. And vice versa.

Threads like this are weird.

I can understand if there's only you and nobody to leave the kids with. That's it really. If your partner takes you they can leave you there and take the kids off somewhere. They don't have a car? Walk...

I got wheeled into an A+E in a wheelchair, holding a bucket to vomit in and with such a migraine (3 days and counting) I could only pull my knees up and rest my head on a cushion in misery. Kids running around, games played noisily on phones, people having loud chats, it was hell and every time something really pierced my head I vomited. My partner put me outside (quiet and wrapped in a blanket) and went out to fetch me when my name was called.

People are so bloody inconsiderate sometimes.

People who have done this > don't feel you need to justify yourselves to this lot.

they;d be the first to put the whole family in the car if something serious happened to the baby.

I'd find it a bit odd for one parent to say oh yes little ben seems to be at deaths door, I'll wait here 10 miles away then shall I. Byeeee!!!!!

Meh.

I think the problem is poor planning .It takes 2 mins to grab books, headphones, wallet and then you are set. I think people are not organsised and then get bored and start people watching and then are the sort of people to start internally slagging everyone off!

regmover

WTF

You had your partner with you?
But you say that if there are kids, the partner would have had to leave and walk "somewhere".

So it is literally one rule for you and another rule for everyone else

I can't believe you wrote that lol

Goodness me, @NothingOnTellyAgain you've really got a bee in your bonnet! Read the effing posts as you seem to be making up what suits you!

Oh lol Jesus Christ so now people who always take their family everywhere are selfish and detrimental to society grin. MNers are such arseholes at times

Where on earth did I say that?? My words were:

There is no rule against doing many things but most people try to act in a way that isn't detrimental to others because not doing so makes them quite selfish IMO.

Taking your family to the park? Great!
Doing what the hell you like, where you like, with no regard to who you are annoying just because there is "no rule against it"? Not so great and selfish.

I don't think it's that hard to understand.

Dd hurt her fingers and they advised bringing her siblings as a comfort to her

The thing is, everyone justifying doing this is coming up with extreme reasons why it's OK for them. Honestly - I don't believe that most of the families you see in these situations have some grave and over-riding reason for having to sit there en-mass making other people's time a misery. You look at them - there might be one nursing a poorly arm, sometimes you can't even work out who is supposed to be ill. If it's a very poorly baby they wouldn't even be in the main area as they get rushed through to a different section straight away.

Let's face it - we know bloody well that A+E and other urgent care facilities are massively mis-used and full of people who don't need to be there at all. So don't try to persuade me that everyone who's dragged their family along is in grave peril or need.

You forgot to add when granny and grandad are there as well!

People who have done this > don't feel you need to justify yourselves to this lot.

I think you'll find you're the only one justifying it on here, everyone else is in agreement with OP! Maybe start taking onboard how unnecessary and annoying this is for ill people to put up with instead of flogging a dead horse trying to defend it.

"regmover

WTF

You had your partner with you?"

Yes... and... no kids. I don't see anyone moaning about someone who is ill being accompanied by one person. Do you think I could have maybe driven myself there? And knowing him he didn't sit playing loud games on his phone, and he'd have given up his seat for someone in need.

I really can't see what the point of that post was supposed to be.

Surely people could use common sense though. A baby at deaths door then yes I could understand both parents wanting to stay. A toddler that’s hurt their arm only needs 1 parent. Why take up any extra seats?

People are rude not giving up their seats in all sorts of places

It infuriates me. I was in A+E a couple of weeks ago and was in extreme pain, there were no seats available and a lot of visibly sick people having to sit on the floor whilst people who had brought tons of friends/family members stayed sat on their seats.

There was one woman with her husband, mum, her husbands two brothers and 5 children in total, all taking up the seats

I’ve inadvertently been one of these families in A&E
My 1 year old had a serious accident, I had 2 other DC at home with me, I rang my Mum in a panic barely able to string a sentence together who came round and we all jumped in the car to A&E (probably should’ve rang an ambulance but I panicked and my thumb just went to my Mums number) I couldn’t get hold of DP at work and my Mum didn’t want to leave us at the hospital in a state so for a while there was me, injured baby and 2 dc in a bay, then when I finally got hold of DP there was 15 minutes or so of him being there too until my Mum took the older DC home
I honestly didn’t even think about it, didn’t care who was there, I’d have let the neighbours come if they happened to be in the car I just needed to get my baby seen to (none of us even had shoes on which I didn’t realise until we were moved from 1 hospital to another and the ambulance driver gave me some flip flops to wear )

However - if it’s not an emergency and there’s time to make sandwiches and bring a picnic then I’m sorry there’s time to figure out where the rest of the family can go, it’s not a bloody day out

i worked in a walk in centre for few years..agree completely..it is seen as a day out for some families .
Our waiting room was like bedlam, kids running around , jumping on chairs, noisy games, picnics on the floor...more than once i would go out and ask them all to be a bit quieter because i could not think or hear the patients in with me
best of all the kids allowed to run in and out of the consulting rooms ...err..no i do not expect your child to open doors when i am in the middle of seeing another person.
people also used to sit en masse on the floor so other people tripping over them or lean against consulting room doors so could hear everything being said
many were very aggro if we asked them to quieten down or keep kids under control...one dad actually said to me ' what do you expect its f**king boring for the kids here'...his little darlings were having races up and down in a supermarket trolley...not that ill then ! and its a GP surgery not a bloody theme park, what do you expect ?

i no longer am prepared to work in any walk in enviroment

Nothingontelly a poster who works at a medical centre has said it is unhelpful if family come. Are they wrong too?

I am NOT judging any parent that had no choice to bring other children along, but if there are two of you...why do it??

I ask myself this when I see more than one adult with kids in the supermarket.

Siblings in attendance for hurt fingers

Surely a parent is fine.... ‘comforting’ her would probably have meant messing aboit to cheer her up and that’s just shit for other people.

It’s a medical practice. People are sick. They are in pain. It is NOT ok to take up seats, make noise and cause a nuisance if you don’t need to be there! That’s just really selfish.

I likely wouldn't do this now, but I did this when my kids were very small. I can remember doing it once with my first and second and a few times with my third as she was very sickly when she was small and there was a time my spouse and I took our youngest to the walk-in and then A&E as the walk-in couldn't treat him due to his age but our older ones were being watched at home by a friend.

This was back before we had mobiles and neither I or my spouse drive and honestly, between the panic of what was going on with the kids (who at the time, the ill child was breastfed which was why I needed to be there) and my at-the-time severe medical anxiety (I'd call it mild-moderate now) which is why it was for the best my spouse was there, we both appreciated having each other for moral support.

We kept small kids on our laps though, I can see why people taking up a bunch of seats or being loud could be very annoying. I hope we didn't annoy too many people, but it was the best for our situation.

I dunno - combination of partner's concern for the ill person, no off-the-cuff childcare available, and it's an emergency, so for some people rational thought goes out of the window? Or other circumstances which we can't imagine because we're not them?

"You look at them - there might be one nursing a poorly arm, sometimes you can't even work out who is supposed to be ill"

But why are you spending your time trying to work out what is up with other families?
That's my point. You don't know and you are guessing. You are bored and in pain and it's not a nice place to be so you start to resent other people.

This is normal > it's the same with train /bus threads.

Where services are for the public and they are crowded and a bit unpleasant, people seem to automtically look around and think well that person shoudn't be here and that one is in the wrong seat and that one should be standign and that one should be on off peak and (always) those children are badly behaved and noisy.

It seems to be a standard human reaction to stress situations, it doesn't mean it's the "right" one though.

In fact none of us know anyone elses situations and the sad fact is that all those people are allowed to be on the bus / train / at the A&E taking up space and making a noise.

It's better to go prepared knowing it will be awful (books / headphones / snacks / whatever) and try to tune it out / do your best than feel resentful and angry over a bunch of people you don't know, and don't know anything about.

That;s my view and I'm perfectly comfortbale with it.

The way the kids get it is depsressing though>

PP saying partners staying togetehr to look after each otehr is fine but if there is a kid they must leave and walk "somewhere" > what even if it's pissing down?
That poster said their partner was invaluable in looking after them when they were ill but simultaneously says that if a person had children they should not be allowed to have their partner look after them in the same way... That feels v off to me.

If it was an emergency they presumably wouldn’t be in the walk-in centre would they?

That’s the point of it

I used to work with someone in a private physio type practice. We had one patient who always brought his whole family in when he came for appointments.

This family weren't content to just wait for him in the waiting room though and they would all pile into the surgery as well: granny, brother, and a couple of kids. Sometimes the patient's wife would come instead of the brother.

Other than the non serious thing the patient was being treated for there was absolutely nothing wrong with him, so no other issues going on.

The room wasn't very big and it left the poor practitioner barely room to move.