Receptionists are not babysitters

Against my better judgment, I had to run my son to the dentist yesterday. He's been battling flu symptoms for a couple of weeks, and while he is much better, he's still not 100%.
Around noon, his father surprised me with the news of the dental-hygenist appointment, which last week I had requested he reschedule. He did not.
While that is an interesting blog subject regarding manipulative control freaks whose self-esteem issues require them to be endlessly self-centered, I'll save that for another day.

Today, the irksome things began with the father's 'demand' that I just "Drop the boy off at the office..." and he'd "pick him up later."
Uh, no.
Just no.
He's an 11 year old kid. You don't just drop him off at some medical office or facility and expect that other people are going to look after him if something unplanned happens....even if he has an appointment.
It is not okay to make a dental hygenist, medical receptionist, or other non-childcare professionals responsible for watching your kid because you just don't want to wait around or have errands to run.

Which brings me to the next irksome thing: this small dentist office has an even smaller waiting room. When we arrived, there was an enormous jogging stroller....you know the type with the gigantic rugged tires.....taking up most of the free space. In that stroller was a sleeping child, probably 2-3 years old. Beside that stroller were two other kids, that I would guess were about five and seven.
There was no adult with them.
The adult, it seems, was back in the dental chair and emerged later, quickly gathering up her gaggle and quietly exiting. They were pretty good kids, yes and were mostly focused on some video devices they had. But when did this become acceptable?
Now I know somebody out there is going to be pissed that I feel this way, but I'm just going to say it: the receptionist at a medical office or styling salon or any other place that has a receptionist is not your babysitter.
The people sitting in the lobby do not want to be responsible for your kids either, even if the kids are angels, even if they have hand-held electronic game systems to entertain them. And even though times are hard, it STILL should not be acceptable to dump your kids in a waiting room and 'get back to them later'.
It. Is. Just. Not. Okay.

Which is why I waited at the office while my son was there, even though his father believes in the drop-off. It is absolutely poor-form to just expect other people to be responsible for your kids without making arrangements. From my perspective as a mom, I certainly would feel like an irresponsible parent if I expected others to even know how to act in my child's best interest if the unexpected occurred. Yes, there will be an age at which I can comfortably 'drop my child off', but eleven isn't it....and this day was a case in point.
As I suspected, the boy was not enough recovered from his flu to undergo a dental cleaning, and I had to be there to make the final call AND to take him home when the appointment was shorter than planned.