01
Nobody in This Story Was Wrong
After days of uncertainty, Tuesday is finally confirmed—too late for childcare to arrange itself quietly.
A short digital book
Work · parenthood · the care behind care
Can You
Cover Me?
The small administrative comedy of caring for other people’s children while trying to find someone to care for your own.
Before you begin
Nobody was wrong. That was the problem.
This short book begins with a rota, a late confirmation and one ordinary request for an early start. From there, it follows the invisible care behind paid care: the messages, favours and family rearrangements that make Tuesday possible.
Five short chapters · Read in order or return through the contents
The reading order
Contents
Five short chapters follow one ordinary request as it moves through work, parenthood, apology and the invisible systems that hold care together.
02
The Care Behind the Care
Paid care depends on an invisible network of partners, grandparents, neighbours, childminders and tired colleagues.
03
Can I Ask You a Favour?
A request for one early hour is really an invitation for another family to rearrange itself.
04
A Difficult Life, but Only in Small Print
Ordinary difficulty arrives as six reasonable things that cannot all happen together.
05
Nobody Is Wrong
Sometimes maturity is accepting a completely fair answer that has ruined your plans.
About the book
The care behind the care.
Can You Cover Me? is a short digital book by Lwazi Sibanda about care work, working parenthood and the invisible negotiations behind an ordinary rota.
Told with dry humour and close attention to the small administrative comedy of adult life, it follows one simple request for an early start as it collides with two families, two sets of children and a Tuesday that refuses to move. It is a book about the messages, favours, apologies and family rearrangements that make paid care possible—and about the moments when nobody is wrong but the problem remains.