Fundraisers & Doctor's Offices

Two things that totally annoy me, and I had to deal with both of them today.

The first one was the doctor's office. Why in the world do they book so darn many people into so little time and space? The poor doctor is scheduled to see a new patient every 15 minutes, plus they have to wash their hands & do all their paperwork and whatnots in between. So that really only leaves about 10 minutes to actually spend with the patient. When was the last time you only spent 10 minutes with your doctor??? Exactly. So today, alone with 4 children in tow (what was I thinking?), I bravely faced the dreaded doctor's office waiting room. For over an hour. Closer to an hour and a half. It's very hard to keep even one child happily occupied in a chair for over an hour. Try four. Then we got to the exam room. It was a tight fit, but we made it. My children are fascinating with the rubber gloves, so everybody got one. As truly exciting as rubber gloves are, though, even that didn't last long. It was short of mass chaos by the time the doctor got there. Bless her heart, she's so tolerant! At the end of the visit she even asked how my blood pressure was doing & had them check it then said, "It's pretty good, considering." LOL So funny...so true. BTW, all kids are fine, just a check up.

Let's talk fundraisers. I've grown to REALLY dislike them. It seems as though they come every month, from the same corporation that inevitably takes 75% of the profits for themselves. Besides, I only know about 10 people who are willing to buy this crap (and yes, that's mostly what it is) & 2 kids who desperately want to sell stuff to get silly dollar store prizes. The odds aren't exactly in our favor. What happened to a good old fashioned bake sale? Lil' Coconut's school last year did this "Fiesta de los Ninos" thing where all the kids performed (so all the parents had to come), and in between performances there were little carnival games (so you had to buy tickets to play), a book fair (so you had to buy books... I mean, you HAD to, right?), plus all sorts of yummy food (so you had to buy dinner because it was right in the middle of dinner & your kids can't possibly NOT eat). These people probably raised a ton of money, and everyone had a great time. Seriously, we did have a good time. That was a really good idea. I have all kinds of ideas for good fundraisers (okay, so they aren't really my ideas, but I've gleaned lots of really good ideas from other sources), but no one to tell them to because there's no actual PTA (or PTO, whichever you prefer). That however is a totally different subject. *sigh* So, on that note...would anyone like to buy some jewelry or chocolates???