Every Day is Laundry Day
02.24.10
ith 5 bodies wearing clothing in this house and 3 of 4 bathrooms being ‘tinkled in’ by boys, laundry can be an every day event. The good news is I am not the live-in laundress! Two words…FRONT LOADERS. We got our first front loading washer when James was about 5 and it was such a fascination for him, he INSISTED on helping with laundry. After a week or two of helping, he was doing his own laundry from start to finish with minimal help from me. I very much enjoyed the help and made this new ‘trend’ into a tradition. As soon as Kelsey was old enough to lug her laundry basket to the washer, she was enlisted. Joshua is already helping with his own laundry. Ken does his own because he doesn’t like the perfumes in the detergent and fabric softener I use for mine. Now everyone has a laundry day – scheduled on gmail, of course (I have two so I can do household stuff like bathroom mats) and it all gets done magically! The older kids have Laundry#1 (wash/dry) one day and Laundry #2 (fold/put away/hang-up) the next day. They also help Joshua with his. If they don’t get it done, they have no clean clothes and there’s no one else to blame.
I firmly believe that the boys’ wives will LOVE LOVE LOVE me for this ‘tradition’ and Kelsey will too when she implements it in her own home. I’m not shirking a motherly duty…in fact, I’m nurturing self reliance and instilling a healthy appreciation for work! Hmmm…I wonder how well it would go over if I had them start doing MY laundry…JUST KIDDING!!!
I firmly Believe EVERY child should learn how to sort and fold. My hubby knows how and although its not his favorite if something were to happen to say (me) he could put clean clothes on our children. His mom ALWAYS had him do the laundry and his dad is still for the large part in charge of getting the clothes to and from the washer and dryer. His mom irons EVERYTHING so thats her job. But shes really great at it. My mother never taught me to sort cloths it was all just one big load. So after getting married my mother and law taught me how to keep whites white and blacks black. Best lesson learned EVER!
I think that’s fantastic that everyone does their share…it makes for a happier mom and a family that’s much better off! Kudos to you.
Hey April, I tried this and I swear my kids didn’t care they would wear dirty clothes. What the heck, I’m a terrible Mom.
Miki, I guess I do have another secret…they don’t get to play until their chores and homework are done every day, so if they don’t do their laundry on the specified day, they won’t play…period.
My kids each have 1 chore. My 13 yr old does the dishwasher. (I dont make him wash the things that dont go in it, so he just loads and unloads the dw.)
my 9 yr old is in the process of helping/learning laundry. So far she only gets whats in the dryer out and in the basket for me, then the wet clothes from the washer go into the dryer. Next month we are going to learn how to sort the loads and load the washer.
Whats funny is, and my son has actually said “I feel like your slave” WHAT?! You have one chore that takes 5 minutes! When I was a kid I had TONS of chores, nevermind if I talked like that to my parents I would’ve had my tale whipped off!
I love scheduling and TO DO lists etc! To SEE IT IN WRITING seems to help get it DONE. Have you seen http://www.cozi.com/ <– Its awesome, but Im scared to get too attached. I doubt it will be FREE for long. LOL
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