Not my emergency!

Your lack of preparation does not make it my emergency.

How often do you end up running around because someone dumps something on you at the last minute? It's not your responsibility, but you feel obliged to make it happen. Not wanting to rant, but I get fed up when I send info out to people a couple of weeks in advance to make sure we're all on the same page, only to have them send stuff back the night before things are due to happen (after 9:30pm) with last minute changes they'd like to make.

Aaaagh!

But my husband reminds me: their lack of preparation does not make it my emergency. There has to be a cut-off time. Sometimes it's just too late to make changes.

It can be easy to take responsibility for things that are not yours to be responsible for. Sometimes that is good - when people adopt children, or become step-parents and treat those children as their own that is an honourable thing. But I'm sure we all know people who go through life not preparing and then expecting others to pick up their mess. There comes a time when we have to let those people stand on their own feet, even if it means they fail.