I hate laundry. I hate laundry so much that for a few years, I was guilty of using this blog as place to complain specifically about doing laundry. Then I realized that that was probably very boring for the readers, so I promised to stop..... and I did. Until today.
Today I have to tell you about something I did that's laundry related. It's a little embarrassing. I'm not really ashamed of it per say, but it's a little wacky and I'm worried that someone may read this and report me to CPS because I fear that's the norm nowadays when people hear that parents are actually making their children do labor. Either that, or you all could judge me and call me a "mean mom"- to which I guess I'll have to remind you all that this blog is titled Meanie Mom Diaries, so if you don't like it, don't go looking for it.
Anyway, it's possible that it's a bigger deal in my head. Here's what I did: I made my kids do their own laundry. If that doesn't sound like such a big deal, listen to the rest of it: I made them do it "Little House on the Prairie" style- as in, I gave them buckets, a bar of soap, a clothesline and told them to get to work. If we had a creek, I would've sent them down and told them to find a good rock to scrub with.
Crazy, right? Mr. C thought so too. He saw the kids scrubbing their clothes in the buckets and looked at me, shaking his head. He didn't say anything out loud though. You know why? Because it was laundry day and on laundry day, I am scary. I am scary because the rest of my family has driven me absolutely insane with their refusal to follow the simple procedures required to complete laundry operation for a family of 6. It's a simple enough procedure: you wear clothes, you put them in hamper. Once a week, I take that hamper and I wash the clothes inside. Then I give the clothes back, and you put them away. You wouldn't think that there's a lot of room for error in that system would you? It seems simple enough. But here's what my kids like to do:
Today I have to tell you about something I did that's laundry related. It's a little embarrassing. I'm not really ashamed of it per say, but it's a little wacky and I'm worried that someone may read this and report me to CPS because I fear that's the norm nowadays when people hear that parents are actually making their children do labor. Either that, or you all could judge me and call me a "mean mom"- to which I guess I'll have to remind you all that this blog is titled Meanie Mom Diaries, so if you don't like it, don't go looking for it.
Anyway, it's possible that it's a bigger deal in my head. Here's what I did: I made my kids do their own laundry. If that doesn't sound like such a big deal, listen to the rest of it: I made them do it "Little House on the Prairie" style- as in, I gave them buckets, a bar of soap, a clothesline and told them to get to work. If we had a creek, I would've sent them down and told them to find a good rock to scrub with.
Crazy, right? Mr. C thought so too. He saw the kids scrubbing their clothes in the buckets and looked at me, shaking his head. He didn't say anything out loud though. You know why? Because it was laundry day and on laundry day, I am scary. I am scary because the rest of my family has driven me absolutely insane with their refusal to follow the simple procedures required to complete laundry operation for a family of 6. It's a simple enough procedure: you wear clothes, you put them in hamper. Once a week, I take that hamper and I wash the clothes inside. Then I give the clothes back, and you put them away. You wouldn't think that there's a lot of room for error in that system would you? It seems simple enough. But here's what my kids like to do:
- shove their dirty clothes back into their drawers with the clean clothes
- shove dirty clothes into various hiding spaces, wait until there's a lot of it, and then put it all in the laundry at once- thus giving me two weeks worth of clothes to wash instead of one
- put their clean clothes back into the hamper because they're too lazy to put it away
- attempt to wear the same dirty outfit to school two days in a row- or for as long as it takes for me to notice what is occurring
- BONUS- Roo likes to put her baby doll's clothes in the laundry for me to wash as well-because doing laundry for six people isn't enough. Now I have to do it for little filthy-faced plastic baby dolls too.
So yes, on laundry days, as I am sorting clothes from the hampers, I am a beast. I am mean. I am snarly. I am sarcastic. I am fed up. I know this sounds stupid to you. You want to know how I know? Because I've danced around the subject with other moms, hoping to hear someone hint that laundry turns them into monsters too. But nooooooo, from what I've gathered, most of you moms just roll with it. I don't understand. How do you guys do that? Because for me, when a kid puts clean clothes back into the hamper, it feels like a HUGE act of aggression against me. The kids may as well be sticking their tiny little middle fingers up at me and saying "EFF you, mom. E-heh-heh-heff YOU."
Anyway. Enough ranting. Here's picture proof of my mental breakdown.
There they are washing their clothes in a bucket. Notice it's only one load that I made them do. Do me a favor and make that clear when you file your CPS report, okay? I fear my case will need all the help it can get.
And here they are hanging it.
The idea was that they'd hate this process so much that, in the future, they would want to follow the simple basic laundry procedures that I outlined above. However, I believe this whole thing may have backfired on me. There was no gnashing of teeth or cries of "Unfair!" In fact, I think they liked it. I mean, they were smart enough to not admit it to me it (the way all kids are usually smart enough to know it's rhetorical when an angry adult spats "So, is this FUN for you? HMMM?) But I wonder if they may have found the bucket of sudsy water and spending the day outside by the pool somewhat appealing?
There is no winning at this.
I'd ask you all for advice, but honestly, I think the next step may be just to throw all the laundry in the pool and let them do it there. At least they'd know how to do their own laundry after CPS comes and hauls their mother away.
Anyway. Enough ranting. Here's picture proof of my mental breakdown.
And here they are hanging it.
The idea was that they'd hate this process so much that, in the future, they would want to follow the simple basic laundry procedures that I outlined above. However, I believe this whole thing may have backfired on me. There was no gnashing of teeth or cries of "Unfair!" In fact, I think they liked it. I mean, they were smart enough to not admit it to me it (the way all kids are usually smart enough to know it's rhetorical when an angry adult spats "So, is this FUN for you? HMMM?) But I wonder if they may have found the bucket of sudsy water and spending the day outside by the pool somewhat appealing?
There is no winning at this.
I'd ask you all for advice, but honestly, I think the next step may be just to throw all the laundry in the pool and let them do it there. At least they'd know how to do their own laundry after CPS comes and hauls their mother away.
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