You know how annoying it is when you have an appointment scheduled with your OB/GYN for a certain time, and you end up waiting for an hour past that time before you even see her for your 4 minute appointment? It makes you wonder if she thinks her time is more valuable than hers. That happens to me all the time…with one of my son’s specialists.

I work. I have a full-time job. I’m very, very lucky that my employer allows me to have  a flexible schedule where as long as I get my work done and can make important calls/meetings, they don’t mind if I have to take an hour during the day to take Max to an appointment or if I can’t start working until 9:30 a.m. two Fridays a month. I realize what an anomaly two working parents in the special needs world because I haven’t encountered many other mothers who have children with special needs and work full-time. I’m sure they are out there, they just don’t live near me I guess.

So because I work, as does my husband, we put dates in our calendars and depend on things like consistent appointments, scheduled in advance, that happen every other week like clockwork. So to that one therapist that Max works with, that I know works with many other children;

“Please stop rescheduling appointments because you’re meeting with other kids. Please stop coming 10 minutes late to my kid’s appointment because you tried to cram something in before his time and it ran late. Please don’t say you can drive him to school afterward, then decide that won’t work but not tell me that until you’re leaving for your next appointment. My time is just as important as yours. I have a job to do, just as you do. I do my best to always be available and do whatever I need to make sure both my kids feel like I’m there for them, but I’ll be honest, sometimes that is just inconvenient. So please, let’s just agree to stick to the time we scheduled in advance, and unless there is an emergency, let’s not switch days, locations or start late. That might work for someone who may have a more flexible schedule being at home, but it just doesn’t work for me.”