Logistics challenges are at the very heart of the working parent experience

To make it a little bit more challenging I had a really bad cough which meant I had to drink continuously during said distant meeting, particularly in the quieter parts.

The meeting was about resilience. I had to leave early for an interview and a parent’s meeting, which was postponed from last week due to work events. I ran towards the car park, realising en route that;

1. there is no toilet in the car park
2. that I had drunk about three pints of water during the course of the day and
3. there was no time to stop on the motorway south.

Oh dear. I did the interview in the car and arrived with seconds to spare at daughter three’s school. I whooshed her down to only son’s school to meet his teacher. Only son was in football club.

Only son is apparently doing well, but has been discouraged from taking in his entire collection of Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. He has turned into a one man library and his teacher, though wanting to encourage his reading, was worried he would be sad if some of his book loans didn’t come back. I said I would not be at all upset if any Diary of a Wimpy Kid book went missing.

It might encourage only son to experiment with another author. His teacher said she might set him up in some sort of librarian capacity at school. Only son would like that, but I’m worried the power and responsibility might go to his head.

Only son already bosses all his sisters around and informs on any infringements of what he considers to be the rules, for instance, if they are watching what he terms “inappropriate” films [basically anything that is not Diary of a Wimpy Kid the movie].

After a short meeting, I sped off with daughter three to get daughter two. Daughter two is spottable from about 200 yards away because she never takes off her red anorak. A red jacket loomed in the distance. We had a 30-second turnaround before heading back to only son’s school to pick him up from football.

The journey was spent discussing the very tangled teenage world of general pengness. It seems daughter two has suddenly become a boy magnet despite the presence of the red anorak. Her approach is not the traditional one. She apparently spent one party talking to a boy about cooking rice…

We arrived back at only son’s school just 10 minutes late which was good going, given the potential for traffic at all points during the two-hour drive-and-pick-up journey. Daughter one texted. “I’ve got your cold, mum,” she said. “Thanks very much.”

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• Mum On The Run