Recently it was pointed out to me that I had “time management issues”. This came after being two minutes late for playgroup one day. I was two minutes late because instead of the normal school run followed by playgroup run, I had tried to squeeze in the post office and recycling centre in between. This would have all worked fine had it not been for the queue in the post office and the tractor we then crawled along behind on the way back from the recycling centre.

I have to say I took offence at the comment because I don’t regard myself as having time management ‘issues’ at all. That day I could not have predicted either of the delays.

I actually feel that I manage my time very well considering the bulk of my day can often be eaten up by transporting children to and from various places or trying to get children to sleep. I still manage most days to finish a fair bit of work and the day to day tasks around the house, leave time for each child, and possibly even a bit of exercise or a bath.

Do I achieve everything I’d like to everyday? No of course not, but that’s often because I set myself so many tasks.

Rather than being poor at managing my time though as this person suggested, I would say that I’m creative with the day and use every minute. Some days that works better than others but overall it works.

I rarely describe myself as ‘busy’ partly because I don’t think that really covers it most days, partly because it’s something people say all the time to get out of things and partly because who really cares anyway. However busy we are that is for us to manage surely?

No one ever really understands anyone else’s set up anyway and why should they? So telling me I have time management ‘issues’ is a bit like me telling you that you parent incorrectly or you cook your roasts in the wrong way or your work/life balance is ‘wrong’.

We all do what we do the way we do it for a reason, so unless you’ve got it all sussed on every level, perhaps address your own ‘issues’ before you address anyone else’s for them?