Inside: Perhaps the most genius hack ever – this simple way to entertain kids at the doctor’s office is a total game changer.

How do you entertain kids at the doctor’s office?

Is there actually anything worse than waiting for the pediatrician?

My kids can handle their lives at a restaurant. They can kick it on a ferry. They can stand in line for a ride and be juuuuuust fine. Take them to the doctor’s office and make them wait in that tiny, windowless room?

I’m pretty sure I know where the inspiration from Lord of the Flies came from.

Wondering what I teach my kids? Check out the Playing Preschool Program.

Time stands still. Kids go wild.

I couldn’t take it any longer. No matter what I did or what we brought we, doctor visits were an invitation to go to meltdown for my kids.

I didn’t want to resort to my cell phone (plus I only have 1 cellphone, but I have 3 kids. The math doesn’t work.).

It was time to pull out the mother of all activity supplies.

Dot stickers, of course.

One of my favorite dot sticker activities is simple: make a sticker line-up. I make a big squiggly line and my kids trace over it with dots. Easy peasy.

And a totally winner.

Dot stickers are magical activity supplies that hold little attention spans for so long. My obsession with dot stickers is well documented.

But then one day, I got an email from a Mom who had taken my Sticker Line-Up activity and done it at the doctor’s office.

GENIUS. BRILLIANT. FANTASTIC. All the accolades. All of them.

I will never go back WITHOUT dot stickers.

I had grabbed 1 marker and about 10 sheets of stickers as we ran out the door, late as always to the doctor because who ever makes those appointments on time? Don’t answer that.

Materials:

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• Dot stickers

These are the ones I buy – I get them from Amazon and they are perfect for everything.

I checked with the nurse first and she was equally confused and curious when I asked to draw on the paper lined bed. Then really curious when I pulled out the dot stickers.

It was go time.

I made a long squiggle line for each of my older kids (ages 3 and 5), and also wrote their names. Thought I’d give them a few options for their stickering (that’s a real word).

Winner winner. Chicken dinner.

This may have been my finest parenting hour. By the time the doctor strolled in 15 minutes later, Sam and Kate were still playing with their dot stickers, peace and harmony reigned, and I think you could actually hear angels singing.

The doctor took one look at the activity and said, “WOW! You should write a book or something!” Spoiler alert: I’ve written two (insert laugh cry emoji here).

Everything about this activity works.

It’s simple: it takes seconds to set this up.

It’s “clean”: there wasn’t anything to tidy at the end.

It’s broad: my 20-month-old loves peeling dot stickers. My 5-year-old loves peeling dot stickers. The range of dot sticker age is vast.

It doesn’t need much: A marker and some stickers. The diapers I brought took up more room than these supplies did.

Plus, let’s be honest: it made me look REALLY good (wink). This made me look like Wonder Mom and who doesn’t need to feel like that every now and then? The kids win. I win. We all win.

So, how do you entertain kids at the doctor’s office? It’s as simple as a marker and pack of stickers. Who knows – you might even get to have an actual conversation with the doctor instead of just wrangling children and putting out tiny fires left and right.

Dot stickers: The answer for how to entertain kids at the doctor’s office.