Laundry

I received the email below from my oldest daughter, Polly, and it reminded me of the days of umpteem loads of daily laundry. There are a lot of things I miss about having my children grown and on their own but all the laundry is not one of them! When the kids were in 7th or 8th grade we were doing the regular weekly cleaning and I requested all the dirty clothes be brought to me in the laundry room first so I could get started on the never ending pile. About halfway through the mound I came across clean clothes that were still folded that they had neglected to put away. The real deal breaker was when I found shirts STILL ON THE HANGERS! OK, that's when my voice hit an octave that only dogs can hear and had what my family calls a "blue butt monkey fit". I called a "meeting" and announced that from that day forward everyone was responsible for their own laundry. I quit, I resign, not doing it anymore, here is the Tide, there is the Downy and good luck. The payoff came when Eddie was a freshman at IU. She called home one night and said, "I just wanted to say thank you." I told her that was very sweet but what was she thanking me for. Well, apparently Eddie was one of the few in her dorm who knew how to do laundry and had not ruined her wardrobe the first week away from home. She wanted to say thank you for teaching her to be responsible. Wow, all those good things came from a foot stomping, screaming maniac temper tantrum. Polly's email is below and I hope it makes you chuckle.

Katy and Sarahs job today was to keep laundry moving. Which included rotating loads, folding, and putting away. Well I came home and apparently they didn't care for their job too much. They learned that the bigger the load, the more they had to fold, and the more they had to put away....soooooooo they figured out if they washed 5 pairs of undies and rotated to the dryer and washed 5 pairs of socks and so on, there wouldn't be that much to fold and put away. Mind you we have just come back from a week long trip (a family of 6, with one guest) AND I have a super capacity washer and dryer that holds 12 pairs of jeans at a time. Needless to say I came home to just about the same mountain of laundry as when I left with the exception of the one pair of undies and one pair of socks that were mine. To add to the story Tory was in charge of putting away my clothes,,,,,,well she too did not care for her job and decided to put my undies and socks where ever it was easiest (not necessarily my sock drawer) sooooooooo, the one pair of socks and the one pair of undies that were apparently washed (this derived from the statement of the laundry girls who said we all had at least one pair each washed ,dried, and folded) are no where to be found. I imagine I will go to work tomorrow in inside out undies, sandals, bermuda shorts and my "bloomies" t- shirt. I have reinvented the Corporate World Attire.

I did chuckle though when the laundry girls were questioned as to why they had washed so many "mini" loads, at least they were honest and admitted it was less for them to fold. :)

Guess what job they have again tomorrow.......

love,

P