Laundry 101

My 6 year old woke up wailing this morning about not having any pants to wear. I have not done laundry in a few days...just have not thought about it much, to be honest. Alexandra had already put on her pants from yesterday. David, on the other hand, was furious. He brought me all of the pants that were still in his drawer, threw them at my feet and YELLED at me for not doing the laundry, that he hated all of these pants, etc.

My children will get a laundry lesson today after school. You would have thought that I was making them eat elephant dung. David proceeded to wail about that too. They will have to do one load of their own laundry. I think that, eventually, this will be harder on me than it will be on them. I suppose some lessons are always like that. I explained that it is my job, as his mother, to prepare him to be able to take care of himself someday. I told him that, while still living under my roof, there would come a day that he would do all of his own laundry. I told him that right now, I was taking it in baby steps. I do all of their laundry, fold it and they have to put it away. They are responsible for bringing it to me and I give it back to them, clean and folded. I also explained that I cannot read his mind and that, in the future, if he realizes he is running low on certain favorites, it would be in his best interest to calmly let me know.

I cannot wait for uniforms for him next year....and yes, I did make Alexandra wear a jumper instead of her dirty pants from yesterday.