Long line that isn’t moving @cvspharmacy in central square, Cambridge. No one’s answering the phone. What’s going on? pic.twitter.com/ZjmZXS3tUr — Rajeeve Martyn (@RajeeveMartyn) September 15, 2018

UPDATE, 12/12: Pharmacist moms wrote to us to let us know that they were disappointed by this article. We want to emphasize how much we respect the work pharmacists do and the sacrifice pharmacist moms make being away from their own families to keep ours healthy. We are sorry to have minimized that incredibly important role. This story was intended to be suggestions for the companies that employ them, not for the hardworking pharmacists.

In the Amazon era, very few purchases are time-sucky anymore—except prescriptions. Yes, you can have some delivered right to your door (thank goodness), but the others require a trip to the pharmacy. When you're a working parent, that visit usually coincides with when every other working stiff is picking up their own meds, and you might even have to go with a kid or two in tow. Come fall (a.k.a. cold and flu season, your germy kids might force you to stop multiple times a month for prescriptions, and those frequent visits can last through spring. Those lines are on average five people deep for me, and with all the information you must give before a worker goes to look for your prescriptions, it's easy to spend 20 minutes to half an hour in the store. Sure, you can try to be productive on your phone during that time, but usually, we're trying (and failing) to keep the kids from running amok, pulling down toys from shelves and hoping they don't notice the myriad birth control devices that also can be accessed. There has to be a better way. Luckily, working moms are full of ideas beyond the costly and most obvious solution of hiring more workers. Maybe the CVSes, Walgreenses and Rite-Aids of the world are already working on these, but if not, may we humbly ask they start allowing these? 1. Reservations for pickup. Instead of just showing up and waiting in an interminable line, you should be able to sign up for a particular time slot for picking up prescriptions, as though it's an appointment. That way, the number of people simultaneously demanding the pharmacy workers' time is minimized.

2. Remote check-in, or at least via kiosks. Airlines have figured this out; why can't pharmacies? If customers enter their own info, the one pharmacist working doesn't have to. She can focus on getting your prescriptions. 3. Prescription sync-up. Some kids' vitamins are available by prescription only. And maybe you or your partner rely on prescriptions year-round How annoying is it when you run out of one just a couple days before the next prescription is ready for pickup? If the pharmacy coordinated renewing each member of your family's meds at the exact same time, you and their workers would save time since you would visit less often. 4. An express prescription line. Some pharmacies have separate lines for asking questions and yet somehow, I'm always behind someone who is swallowing a pill for the first time and paying in pennies. Can there be an express line, as there is in supermarkets, for people who aren't going to fight the cost or otherwise dominate the worker's attention? 5. Gated kids' activities beside the line. Or a little seat to strap in the littlest visitors so they don't crawl away while you're signing that you consent to skip counsel from a pharmacist? I've had to relinquish my spot in line too many times because my 4-year-old wanted to run and check out the cars an aisle away (and no, bringing my own activities doesn't help because there's too much novelty all around him). 6. Give estimated available-to-pick-up times. Yeah, some do this already, but when your sick kid needs medicine stat and your doctor has called it in for you, you have very little info on when the prescription will actually be ready. A text that the prescription has been received with a likely window that it'll be ready could save us from standing around and bugging the pharmacist to check if the request has come through yet.