My kid's school requires this form before the school year starts. Is that not typical?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you all so much, for the lack of judgment and the very helpful advice. I never ever would have thought of Minute Clinic or urgent care, although now that you all have suggested it, it seems obvious. I really don't know why this hit me so hard, but everything has been a lot lately, and to blown something so easy (dropping off a form!) seemed like the ultimate failure.

I posted mainly just to get it off my chest but hopefully some future panicked parent will find this thread when they're trying to figure a way out of a similar mess. Thanks DCUM, you're a wonderful lifeline!

Eh, most of us have been there. My kids could regale you for hours with stories about my busy working mom parenting fails but they've grown up to be functional (near) adults and they love me despite the fact I am not perfect.

Yeah, we have been there OP. That's why I love having this community at my fingertips. I love you DCUM and Jeff.

Anonymous wrote:Thank you all so much, for the lack of judgment and the very helpful advice. I never ever would have thought of Minute Clinic or urgent care, although now that you all have suggested it, it seems obvious. I really don't know why this hit me so hard, but everything has been a lot lately, and to blown something so easy (dropping off a form!) seemed like the ultimate failure.

I posted mainly just to get it off my chest but hopefully some future panicked parent will find this thread when they're trying to figure a way out of a similar mess. Thanks DCUM, you're a wonderful lifeline!

Eh, most of us have been there. My kids could regale you for hours with stories about my busy working mom parenting fails but they've grown up to be functional (near) adults and they love me despite the fact I am not perfect.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happened to me too and I felt terrible. In my (our!) defense, at least my school did not do a great job of conveying that the physical was needed. Not only that, I needed one for my kid to try out for the school play. Um, what?

But yes, go to an urgent care. They will do it. You don't need the pediatrician.

That’s funny that a physical was required to try out for a play. Why don’t kids need physicals to take PE?

+1. Completely absurd.

No advice here, just commiseration. My DC had a concert this past weekend for his music school. He's in a small band. They were performing Christmas carols at an outdoor holiday event. The school sent out repeated emails about the date/time. Repeated emails and reminders...

Yet, I wrote the wrong day on my calendar and he missed it. We were complete no shows for no reason.

I have no explanation. I felt really bad. I apologized to my DS, the music school, and his bandmates.

The band did fine. Someone filled in for him. I'm really just embarrassed and honestly a little worried about myself.

I feel your pain, mama. I feel so underwater these days. There’s just too much on my plate and I feel terrible when things get dropped.

Just for future reference/help - I get my kids a physical in the summer when things are slower and I bring the school district physical form with me. I have them fill it out and leave the sport name blank and I scan it in. Its good for the entire year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to reprioritize. This is not a disaster. He can try again next season or next year. Blame the dr's office. He doesn't have to know. Just say you're sorry it didn't work out. You are wound so tightly that YOU might be contributing to how anxious your kid is. Bring the level down and it'll help him be less anxious too. Crap happens. That's life. We can't control everything. Do what you can, and focus on work for now.

I love advice like this. The old JUST RELAX. And also telling you it's your fault your kid is anxious.

Full of helpful gems.

And condescending as hell.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can get these forms today, but not at YOUR doctor’s office.

I don’t believe in letting my kids suffer for my mistakes, so saying oops, you can tryout next season/year doesn’t fly for me. Suck it up and pay the Monday at RightTime (or wherever).

So nice. I don’t believe in me suffering for my mistakes but sh*t happens.

But OP can fix this for her child - today. For less than $50. It’s trifling as hell to just say…oh, I’m sorry, you can try out next time, when this can be fixed in an hour with $50 at the CVS Minute Clinic.

Anonymous wrote:Dang. Whenever I need something from the pediatrician, I literally just wait in the waiting room until it's done. Yeah, they don't like me, but I get my forms.

This. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

This reminds me of visiting my elderly aunt at the hospital. Uncle also in the room. She told me her chest hurt. I went to the nurse's desk and said, "MY AUNT'S CHEST HURTS." The nurses hurried to the room and it was found my aunt's lung had collapsed. My quiet uncle had already told them her chest hurt, and they ignored him because he was too quiet about it. Sometimes you have to be a little insistent.

Please update us that you got it done-- CVS minute clinic for the win!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happened to me too and I felt terrible. In my (our!) defense, at least my school did not do a great job of conveying that the physical was needed. Not only that, I needed one for my kid to try out for the school play. Um, what?

But yes, go to an urgent care. They will do it. You don't need the pediatrician.

That’s funny that a physical was required to try out for a play. Why don’t kids need physicals to take PE?

Maybe someday they will be, but probably because there have been more instances of serious or fatal occurrences like cardiac arrest in extracurricular sports (particularly football) versus PE. But you need the physical for any extracurricular sports in all DC area districts that I’m aware of. I wasn’t aware of that requirement for activities like theater since I’ve never worked in those departments. Although thinking about it I guess it would make sense for marching band to need a physical.

I'm a person who fills out forms like these and if you try to bully me by sitting in the waiting room your paper will go right to the bottom of the pile. But generally I try to get things done same day or next day. If someone kindly explains the situation and asks for help I am willing to bend over backwards to get it all taken care of ASAP, 100% of the time.

Anonymous wrote:This happened to me too and I felt terrible. In my (our!) defense, at least my school did not do a great job of conveying that the physical was needed. Not only that, I needed one for my kid to try out for the school play. Um, what?

But yes, go to an urgent care. They will do it. You don't need the pediatrician.

That’s funny that a physical was required to try out for a play. Why don’t kids need physicals to take PE?

As a high school coach - in my nova district they have to have a physical from this school year on file to tryout. However, there are multiple days of tryouts for high school so they can sit and watch for the first day and participate after that if they get stuff in. If I’m not making cuts, then I will take people on the team and have done so even after tryouts actually concluded (kids cut from another sport after tryouts who still wanted to participate in something).

If the sport does make cuts then it would affect things more.

I don’t know anything about middle school sports, or how much they make cuts. But I would at least email the coach and whoever is in charge of middle school activities/athletics and see what options you have since you can get the physical done by the end of the week, just not today.

Don’t beat yourself up. This is a super common occurrence if that makes you feel any better. There are so many boxes to check off nowadays to participate in anything. It’s for a good reason but that doesn’t make it any more realistic for working parents to balance. If this doesn’t work out, then you’ll be able to shift and find something else for your child to participate in.