The best waiting room game

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I know I’m not the only mom out there that needs to take a deep breath when I walk into a waiting room with my little ones.  

I’m always thankful when the waiting room has a great play area or book selection, but sometimes you need a little something in your back pocket to make it through.

Dr. Office Games

My dear friend Maja, back in Texas, taught me this waiting room game over ten years ago, when my oldest daughter was having her two year check up.

You simply pull between three and ten items out of your purse (depending on the age of your kids) and place the items on the chair or floor next to you.

Have your child look at the objects and memorize them as well as they can.

Have them hide their eyes while you put one of the items back into your purse.

Have them open their eyes and figure out which item is missing.

Then repeat!

 

See?!  Easy. And, you don’t have to remember to bring anything with you!  It will buy you at least fifteen minutes, and in a waiting room, that is a long time!

Usually, one or two other kids in the waiting room join in the fun. It always helps the time pass!

Do you have any tried and true waiting room games? I’d love to hear!

11 COMMENTS

  1. Great game Kate. Love it. We play endless games of hangman at restaurants and waiting rooms. I have played on napkins and backs of receipts from my purse. Anything to pass the time and keep everyone entertained.

  2. Thanks for the great idea! In my life……we live in waiting rooms….this beats carrying all the electronic gadgets to pass the time and it keeps the kids connected to you and not a screen!

  3. Great idea.
    Another easy one is to take a tissue and blow it in the air and keep it from hitting the ground or try tossing back and forth without wading it up. They always have a tissue box in the room.

  4. Once we are in the doctor’s office and waiting there, sometimes we play Cotton Hockey with tongue depressors and cotton balls.

  5. We play “Guess Who” quite a bit. Great for all ages. One person describes a character from a book, movie or real life and everyone else guesses who it is and everyone gets a turn to stump the others. Example: “I have red hair, I’m a great swimmer, my BFF is a fish” A: Ariel!

  6. Restaurants, in the car, anywhere we have lag time:

    Tic Tac Toe (at 5 yrs old I showed my kids how to “win” so its competitive)

    I Spy

    Or one I’ve been doing since they were 3 is make up a story. Especially great in cars for kids under 6 years old. Each kid gives me 1-3 (depending on # kids) items or words they want in the story. These stories last for as long as the time needed and usually end with a “To Be Continued”. I’m not kidding, I just start talking and you never know what’s going to come out! Sometimes they ask for certain stories to “continue” at future down times, or, now I am telling the start of the story and having them finish it. Gets our creative juices going, for sure.

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