What's in Mommy's bag of tricks?
No electronic devices allowed. These four words may cause a parent to panic at the anticipation of a long wait, especially inside a government office such as the U.S. Embassy, which is not a place you'd associate with preschool-age-appropriate fun. But a trip to the embassy is sometimes a necessary inconvenience for families with travel plans or, like us, families with a young and adorable American citizen who needed to be recognized as such. The night before our CRBA (or Consular Reporting of Birth Abroad) appointment at the embassy, my worried husband asked me, "Are iPads allowed?" Sorry, Honey, we're just going to have to be resourceful.
Even if we weren't required to line up with the majority of the people who were there to apply for a U.S. non-immigrant visa, it still took us three hours, from waiting for the doors to open (we got there early in order to be one of the first in line) to waiting for our documents to be processed (which took relatively quickly, but it seemed like other families were not so lucky. Need to get some official business done with a preschooler (and an infant) in tow? Here's how to play the waiting game, screen- and gadget-free.
