Dirty Underwear

First, an update to my last post. Grant got a hat in the mail from the car dealership and I got NOTHING. Bah Humbug to them!

We have had an interesting time with our 10-year old. After doing five loads of her laundry on a weekly basis, I noticed that she was putting clean clothes in her hamper and that was why I felt like I was always washing her clothes. I am guessing she does this because she is too lazy to put them into a drawer. For example, she would change from her play clothes to a shirt, which she would wear to dinner and then put it in the hamper. I would tell her, "your shirt is not dirty, you can put it away and wear it again." But, she didn't listen and the shirt would end up in the hamper and in the washing machine, along with other clean clothes. Same thing with pajamas. Wear them once, they are in the hamper. She has four pairs of PJs, so after the fourth day I noticed she was wearing long t-shirts, which also ended up in the hamper. Now, I talked to her about this over and over again but since she isn't the one doing the laundry, she never changed.

Well, guess what? I got sick of it and refused to do her laundry anymore. I bought her a little detergent thing and told her and my husband that I am no longer washing her clothes. I taught her to use the washing machine and drier and then I sat back and waited.

Being bossy and controlling, I had a hard time not reminding her to do her laundry. I also had a hard time not reminding my husband to do her laundry. I just let it go... disengaged is the "formal" word for it.

Well, two weeks went by and it was time to get ready for a party. She had nothing to wear. Literally, no pants to wear. Grant and her were supposed to go riding the next day and she had no jeans and had not washed her jersey. Turns out, she was also out of clean underwear. Yuck!

Now, part of me felt guilty that the 10 year old was about to wear dirty underwear. But, on the other hand, I clearly explained to both her and her father that I was no longer washing her clothes. I explained the consequences of not washing her own clothes and made sure she understood them. At the end of the day, clean clothes is just not very important to her (is it to any 10 year old)?

This is not the '90s. Grunge is out. Cleanliness is in. In fact, it is next to godliness. Kids are sparkling clean now. I don't see stained shirts at school or dirty, unwashed hair. Clothes fit, unlike when I was a preteen and wore boy shorts to school that sagged down and showed my underwear.

I did my own laundry at 12 years old. My mom started doing hers at 7. On the other hand, Grant didn't do his until he moved out of him home (well, he was 14). And my father has never washed his own clothes. Is it asking too much for a 10 year old to keep herself clean and to launder her own clothing? Well, time will tell. Grant gave her a smaller laundry basket and told her, when this is full, you have to do your laundry. Apparently he isn't going to do it for her either. Let's just hope she figures it out before the next dirty underwear saga.