A Lesson in Schedule Management
Sunday afternoon, I was knee-deep in packing chaos for our upcoming Europe trip, juggling a suitcase in one hand and entertaining a 3- and 5-year-old with the other hand, when suddenly slam!—the door to my oldest daughter’s room shut with tween-level drama. A crisis was definitely not on my to-do list that day. But of course, life doesn’t wait for a free slot in your agenda to throw in a lesson. (And let’s be honest: free slots don’t really exist anyway.)
I knocked gently and asked what was wrong. She explained—between frustration and tears—that she had planned to go to the swimming pool with her friend. At least, she thought they had planned it. They’d chatted about it a few days earlier, but when she finally reached out that morning, her friend was already on the way home from… you guessed it… the pool. My daughter was angry and disappointed. Angry at her friend for not saying anything, disappointed because the whole plan had fallen apart.
Now, what’s a mom to do? I couldn’t take her to the pool myself—besides, she didn’t want me, she wanted her friend. So I saw two things I needed to handle:
Help her figure out what went wrong so she could learn from it.
Find a backup plan quickly (because packing still needed to happen, and a sulking tween was not going to help).
The truth is, schedule management isn’t hard once you know what to think about. The girls had indeed talked about going swimming “on Sunday”… but that’s where the planning stopped. No time, no place, no follow-up. And as anyone with kids knows, “Sunday” can mean anything from 8 a.m. (yes, some families are actually pool-ready that early) to mid-afternoon in our house. No wonder the plan fell apart.
So: swimming pool was off the table that day. But they regrouped, decided to meet at the friend’s house in the afternoon, and planned to go together the next morning instead. As soon as I heard that, I asked the obvious mom-question: “Do you mean a sleepover?” Because the last thing I needed was a panicked call later—“Mom, can you bring my toothbrush and pajamas?”
And you know what? The day was saved. Even better: the next day they bumped into another classmate at the pool and made another plan—this time with actual details. They agreed: 1:30 p.m. sharp, in front of the swimming pool entrance. And guess what? It worked! The kids were proud, and honestly… so was I.
Because learning to manage your own schedule is one of those big steps toward independence. And as parents, we learn right alongside them.
