Children in waiting rooms

[BigRedLondonBus]

Dd has some regular hospital appointments at the moment but I have no child care so it means taking all 4 children to the hospital with me. It’s abit of a nightmare what age would it be acceptable to leave children in the waiting room whilst we have the actual appointment?

FrancisCrawford

My complacency I am the most cautious person on this thread.

FrancisCrawford

There are no “full facts” when you are leaving your children on their own. That’s the whole point. You’re leaving it to chance that they will be fine.

He just looked like a frail old man, smartly dressed and with tidy hair.

He sounds lovely. But he would never have been left alone with my 7 year old for 15 minutes, so I think risk-wise, we probably would have been alright.

Hercule. How can you be sure you know who is in tne mens toilets? Unless you monitor it for 20 minutes and intreigate everyone going in you have no idea who is in there. My son uses the gents, he also waits in waiting rooms so I'm not against him using the gents I'm just pointing out to you that if u think you have fully monitored tne situation in tne gents over the waiting room you are very much mistaken

my2bundles

I don’t think that. I think I would have monitored it slightly better than I would have monitored a waiting room from the consultation room.

Hercule you also didn't answer my question. Was your example of hospital waiting rooms actually the a@e waiting area on a Friday night?

Why are none of the appointments when the kids are at school? Most appointments etc I thought tended to be during office hours?

Anyway if there are well behaved and no issues you could just leave them. I had to take my 13 year old to A and E one night recently though and I did take my 10 year old in with me when he was being seen as a lot of the people in the waiting room looked quite rough.

Also 8f u think you can identify an alcoholic or crackled at 100 paces, congratulations on being super human.

my2bundles

It honestly wasn’t! My DH had an accident. Sunday, I think. But that’s not the point. There could be anybody in a public waiting room.

my2bundles

Thanks 😂 I will use “crackled” from now on.

So it was a@e then, not a consultants waiting g room. There is a huge difference.

I used to work with people with alcohol and substance addiction and many of them appeared completely "normal", holding down jobs and conversations.

Similarly I have a friend who is often accused of being a drunk due to to her movements and slurred speech. She has Parkinsons disease.

It's not always easy to "spot at a 100 paces" 🙄

herculepoirot2 you sound quite deluded if you think you can control what's going on in the toilets from the waiting room, or think you can tell by observing without interacting who is or is not psychotic, addicted, or inclined to tough or flash at or speak inappropriately to a child who is unaccompanied for a moment.

I let my 8 year old son use the men's too, and it's appropriate and there are tiny risks attached to everything.

Insisting that you have the men's toilet under control because you put your head around the door and watched people going in and out, and that (regardless of your doubtless relevant profession) you are the only human in the world who can 100% accurately assess the mental health and criminal potential of complete strangers at a glance just invalidates any other argument you make though.

Unaccompanied in the hospital surely means exactly that - that the parent or guardian must be inside the hospital, in the same department and contactable rather than at home/ out shopping, not arms length supervision. Hospitals don't ban children from sleeping alone as in patients as far as I'm aware, and don't ban them from walking down the corridor to a vending machine or toilet, or being in a pediatric waiting area while a parent is in a nearby consulting room as long as they are not disturbing anyone.

anothernotherone

Deluded, rather than just happier with my children in or outside the room. Sure.

herculepoirot2 Your claim that you can tell whether or not people are mentally ill or drug addicts simply by watching them walk past makes you sound deluded.

You really are deluded if you think a paediatric consultant’s waiting room resembles an A&E on a weekend evening. And if you think you can spot an alcoholic or drug abuser at 100 paces.

Unaccompanied in the hospital surely means exactly that - that the parent or guardian must be inside the hospital, in the same department and contactable rather than at home/ out shopping, not arms length supervision.

The wording used on hospital or GP waiting room signs about unaccompanied children usually reads "children are not allowed to be left unaccompanied in the waiting room". Because they don't want parents to leave their children alone in the waiting room.

In our children's outpatient area a dc could stay in the waiting area and ladies on the desk would happily keep an eye on them (age 7 up not toddlers) but dc would know where parent was and could easily access the room if needed by using the handle. A&E is completely different to clinic slots. A dc isn't going to be groomed in 10 minutes

@DuchessDarty interesting as my gp practice is happy for my dc to wait outside rather than me miss my smear test.

Hercule a@e where you witnessed wetting themselves and other undesirable behaviours is not tne same as consultants earring rooms. I'm a@excited you get everyone walking in. People who have been on all day benders needing stomachs pumping. Criminals under police guard, drunks after fights. People who have had accidents, kids with scarlets fever, heart attack victims. The list is endless. Yes there's disruptime behaviour in the a@e I waiting area due to tne nature of some of tne people who use it combined with long waiting times. I would never leave my kids unattended in there. Consultants waiting rooms are the opposite of a@e waiting rooms.

ladies on the desk