By Staff
Michelle Blaylock, Mom's Corner
Have you ever noticed how much we wait? We wait at red lights, doctor appointments, restaurants, drive thrus, pick up lines at schools, pharmacies, and many others.
I read this week the average American will spend approximately six months of their lives waiting at red lights. Oh, goody.
When my oldest daughter was very young she was ill quite a bit. Hence, we spent quite a bit of time waiting in doctors' offices. I used to get frustrated sitting at a doctor's office waiting to be seen by the doctor. I would sit there and think of all the stuff I could be doing at home.
Well, that mindset did nothing to improve my disposition. I decided I had to change my viewpoint. Instead of looking at the wait time as an inconvenience, I decided to look at it as an opportunity.
I began to look for things that I could do while I waited. First of all, if nothing else, it's a great time to just relax and read a favorite book or share favorite books with my kids. If the kids with me were not too ill, I started to teach them things while we waited. My oldest loved to learn poetry. We began by learning all the nursery rhymes I could think of and then moved on to other types of poetry. The nurses would laugh when my little three-year-old could recite poems from Shel Silverstein and other poets. To this day, she stills loves poetry.
As the kids began to get older and entertained themselves more, I began to look at other productive ways of spending wait time. Here are some of the things that work for me: sorting and filing coupons, sorting pictures, making a grocery list, cross-stitching, making out menus for the next week or two, updating my planner, scheduling other appointments, reading about a new craft or sewing project, and preparing birthday cards to mail.
I've also encountered other people who had creative ways of using wait time. For example, I took a scrapbooking workshop when we lived in Kentucky.
The lady who taught the workshop actually took her scrapbooking supplies with her to doctor appointments.
She carried along a lightweight TV tray and a small satchel for the pictures and supplies. I don't go this far simply because I still have a little one that needs to be carried from time to time and I don't want to have to carry him and a TV tray, light weight or not!
I had another friend several years ago who kept a to-go bag ready. She usually had a light snack (she was a diabetic), an extra supply of her medication, an emergency contact information sheet, an activity book for her children, and a cross-stitch or other portable craft for herself. I don't always keep a bag ready to go, but I do keep stuff at hand so I can have a bag ready in a matter of minutes.
Obviously, we can't use every minute of every day doing something. Sometimes we do just have to patiently wait. However, by using the other times wisely, I don't feel so impatient when I do have to just wait, like at those stoplights. After all, if I'm going to use six months of my life sitting there I suppose I'd better learn to be patient.
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