5 Ways To Fit Your Kid’s Appointments Into Your Work Schedule

Between three kids and me, there seems to be an endless litany of dentist, doctor, orthodontic and pediatric appointments. I am not even going to mention (in this post) all the sports events, teachers conferences and other miscellaneous commitments.

This alone could be a full time job. A friend of mine gets to work at 6 a.m. for the sole purpose of using her first hour to do all the scheduling for her three kids.

It took me some number of years to allow the right amount of time for these appointments in between work meetings. And if I can vent for just a moment, and I suspect many of you readers can relate, the doctor/dentist/ortho thing really does not accommodate your average working person. Office hours are typically shorter than work hours so it’s not an option – at least in my experience – to make even some of these appointments outside work hours.

So we are left with mixing appointments and work. Then driving kids back and forth to and from home and school, and back to work again. I have taken calls in countless hallways in these offices…but I digress.

One of the stand out experiences for me, which challenged even my ability to synthesize kids and work was when we were living in San Francisco.

I had dentist appointments for my two girls in the City. This was before number three was born. After that, I had to drive down 101 mid-morning. For any of you Bay Area folks, you know what that can look like. Then I’d drop them both off at daycare on the peninsula and zip over to my office for a 10 a.m. meeting.

My oldest was “mostly” potty trained  but she sometimes didn’t make it. So, at the dentist office, she told me she had to go potty. Of course I ran her to the bathroom but we were just a bit late. Not a disaster but soaked underwear for sure. And of course I didn’t have a spare. So being the innovative mother I am, I took the damp underwear and while driving down 101 had one hand on the steering wheel and one with the underpants on the vent at full tilt.

Now I know there is a law against texting and driving. Even talking on the phone without a headset and driving. But I was pretty sure there was no law against drying underwear on the vent and driving, though likely there should be.

Well we made it to daycare with dry underwear. And I made it to work (my underwear was also miraculously dry)!

5 Ways To Fit Kid’s Appointments Into Your Work Schedule

What I have found works best – if you can swing it – when booking these appointments is:

• If you have more than one, do everything you can to book all the kids in one session
• Set enough time on your calendar for drive time – and leave a little room
• Consider lumping a number of appointments into one day or half a day. Take it as vacation (this is more guilt-free and stress-free than the back and forth in the middle of the day)
• Book the next appointment before you leave. It’s a pain when you want to jet out of the office but highly efficient

• Get all appointments immediately into your work and family calendar so others can potentially be back ups or helpful in supporting all the appointments

Wrapping It Up

Despite my best efforts I probably have to reschedule 25% to a third of my appointments.

So I am reaching out to hear more tips from you, lovely readers. What are  the craziest thing you have had to do to keep your kids up to date with your kid’s appointments? Share them in the comments below. I look forward to hearing from you!