Do you ever plan to make an early start, then get loads of requests, can you do this, can you do that, stuff like giving one of the kids a lift somewhere because you are off work (to decorate/garden/diy), then ‘I have invited my mum around this afternoon’ etc. Then at the end of the day ‘oh, you haven’t got much done’.
One that sticks in my mind is going into the living room with my bike helmet and a pair of shorts on, saying I’m just nipping up to Tesco, does she want anything. My daughter was little at the time “you could pick her up from her dance class”. I looked puzzled, “oh did she go on her bike?”, no you will have to take the car. Well I was going to cycle, I thought dancing was the opposite direction. Yes it is, could you drop her back here before you go to Tesco because I want to give her an early tea, but not for another 25 minutes.
So you have changed where I’m going and how I’m getting there and when I’m going - no, I needed to go to Tesco. “Well why offer to help if you have no intention to?”