Am I stupid or am I clever?
...It's all a matter of perspective. It depends who you ask. I suppose it's a toss-up at this point...
*****
Monday is laundry day in my house. If Aaron and Bridgette want clean clothes for the week, they need to have their hampers full of dirty clothes in the laundry room before they leave for school, or else their clothes don't get washed...by their mom, anyway! (And, frankly, that means they don't get washed for the week...I've yet to see them put two and two together and figure out that they can wash them for themselves...) So, Monday morning usually finds my two kiddos in their rooms, gathering the dirty clothes from the floors of their rooms (they are typical teenagers, after all) and shoving them into their hampers and hauling the overflowing hampers into the laundry room.
Laundry day is a busy one for me. I do all of our laundry separately for the sake of sanity. Aaron and my husband are only a size apart (Aaron being the taller one), so their underwear and socks are indistinguishable. Bridgette and I wear the same size jeans and sometimes the same size tops so our underclothes are very similar, too. After a few weeks of mixing everything up, and having everybody wondering why everybody else's clothes were in their dresser drawer, I decided it was just easier to wash the kids' together and Mike and mine together. It works much better...but takes a bit longer.
Today I was catching up on YESTERDAY'S laundry...it carried over to Tuesday. I have made an executive decision...I am making a new rule. For the umpteenth time, I made it to the bottom of Aaron's laundry hamper, and I found a third of it was FOLDED CLOTHES from last week...that were dirty because they had been mixed with stinky, dirty clothes from a sweaty teenage boy! You see, when Aaron's clothes are all washed and dried, I fold them and return them to him in the hamper they came in. I then tell him to put them away...to which he replies the reply of teenage boys everywhere..."Uh-huh." I used to think that meant "Yes, I will." I was hopeful. Especially, because I'd ask ten minutes later, after he reappeared from his room, "Did you empty EVERYTHING from your hamper and put it all away WHERE IT BELONGS?" He'd answer "Uh-huh." Every week I'd push a little further, "Are you SURE?" "Uh-huh." The next week: "In your dresser drawers?" "Uh-huh." But then, the next week I'd be putting the dirty clothes of his in the washer, an there would be folded socks and underwear and jeans under the pile of dirty clothes! What the heck??? It would totally make me MAD!!! (And I rarely get totally mad!)
Well, I have realized more than once that this really interferes with a goal I have had since the kids were toddlers, and one I review every year-end when I plan the next year's annual goals: I want to be "predictably happy" for my family. I want them to approach me and always expect me to be in a good mood. Grrrrrr....this hamper thing gets in my craw every time and ruins my day! I hate it. So...I have come up with a solution. I know if I shared it with my hubby, he would think I am being stupid. Maybe I am. But, I am going to start putting Aaron's clothes away after I fold them. I'm not even going to ask him. I know, I know - I'm not training him to do what he's supposed to do. I'm not teaching him anything other than his Mommy is going to do it for him if he refuses to do it right. Whatever! I've been after him to do it right for about 10 years now. He hasn't learned it yet. I am doing this to save my Monday. I need to do this. It's driving me crazy.Yes, I know he probably has me trained...but I don't care. I'm through washing clean clothes.
Ahhhh...I feel calmer already...
5 comments:
Or...he can start washing his own. This sounds very familiar, but I find clothes all over the house. Grr...
I can't stand someone else doing the laundry in my house... There is too much to do with 7 people and if someone starts a batch, they'll leave it sit for 3 days before they remember to throw it in the dryer and by that time, I'm so far behind, I'm ready to pull out my hair. So I do it. I keep my son and his wifes separate because too close in size to one of my daughters. I do my mil's separate because she complains when her towels get mixed in with our stuff. Laundry is a nightmare. Can I send them all to your house for training?
I don't think it sounds stupid at all. I think you're finding a way to maintain your sanity. I totally get it.
When Monte and I put the addition on our home my biggest request was a second laundry room (yep, that's right, I said SECOND). Not only did I have difficulty getting up and down our spiral staircase with laundry baskets full of clothes, but I just couldn't stay on top of washing, drying and folding laundry for all six of us.
Fast forward - now we're seven. There's more laundry - but there's also a second laundry room. I make all of my big kids do their own laundry (this was my solution to find sanity, because doing laundry for just Monte, Colin, Ethan and myself takes an entire day!). My only instruction to them is to always wash everything on cold! :) Now I don't get to complain if they don't fold their clothes and if they're not put away because it was me who said they have to take care of washing them. You know what? It's amazing! I don't go in their rooms to check for laundry anymore! They do the washing (my rule is that they HAVE to do it on Monday for the boys and Thursday or Friday for Claire b/c she shares a washer and dryer with us and I do our laundry on Monday, sometimes spilling into Tuesday).
All of that to say: I understand. And you're not stupid - you're maintaining sanity which, for a mother, is a VERY important thing! :)
Love you!!
You know what I do?? I make the kids sort and fold and put away!! *gasp* I wash & dry & sort out my stuff and put it away... sometimes we do it together... sometimes they do it and leave my stuff for me to sort... anyway... IF I end up doing the sorting and folding (when soccer is in full swing I do it more)... anyway... IF I do it... I put the kids clean clothes ON THE FLOOR in front of their closets... and then they can't mix it up in their hampers... so yes.. weird... but the clean clothes end up on the floor and dirty in the hamper ... backwards... but it works! =) lol...
Here's some perspective too... My dryer died on Friday. After a stint at the laundromat, I prefer to hang up the towels on hangers and air fluff in the dryer until we get a new one...
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