The following is a refurbished post from a little while back. It still rings true today and fits nicely with this week’s Finish the Friday prompt, “The chore I hate most is…” Now grab your bottle of Tide, get out your dryer sheets, and come commiserate with me on my son’s laundry, the chore I hate the most!
The pile swarms before my eyes. Twisted, tangled socks taunt me. Pants with no knees mock me. The sweatpants. Oh, the sweatpants!
It’s laundry day for my 11-year-old son. And here’s what I think:
1. How many times have I told him to turn his socks right side out?
2. How many socks can one eleven-year-old wear anyway?
3. Does he have ANY pants with the knees still intact?
4. Which one of these pairs of pants is the one that’s too short? I keep noticing that he’s wearing a pair that’s too short. If I don’t pull them out, then mean kids will start calling him “Highwater Boy” and he’ll never recover socially.
5. What’s that? Blood! What happened? Okay, good, it’s ketchup.
6. Why are there pen marks all over this sweatshirt? What possesses him to draw on his sweatshirt?
7. I’m washing every pair of sweatpants he owns. But what happened to all those jeans I bought him? Why does he hate the “feel” of jeans and refuse to wear them?
8. Ooo! A five dollar bill! Finders keepers!
9. This laundry hamper is bottomless. The clothes just keep going and going.
10. How many years left do I have before I can teach him how to do his own laundry?
Can you relate to my laundry woes? What household chore gets your goat?
This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday post. Join us! Thanks to our hosts Finding Ninee , Crumpets and Bollocks, and Ripped Jeans and Bifocals.
Love this. Although I have to up my laundry game, I rarely examine what I put in the washer. I’m on autopilot, as there is rarely a day I don’t do laundry! I love when I find money – and cannot wait for the day I get to pass the laundry baton to the kids.
Allie recently posted…Barrett’s First Track Meet!
I’m getting closer to making them do their laundry. I have to be ready though to realize it will take them twice and long as when I do it and everything will come out 3 times as dirty/wrinkled/ruined as when I do it!
Katy @ Experienced Bad Mom recently posted…Deep Thoughts about my Son’s Laundry
Ugh! Laundry!! My kids want to change multiple times a day and think it’s no big deal. I do make them put away their laundry, though, so that has made a bit of a difference. Sometimes I get all excited when I hear something clanking around in the washer and then it turns out the be a rock. If I had a penny for every rock I’ve washed since becoming a mother…I’D BE RICH!!!
Rabia @TheLiebers recently posted…A Much Needed Break
Some of those buttons on jeans are the loudest things I ever heard in the dryer. It’s like Levi’s cut those buttons out of river rock. 🙂
Katy @ Experienced Bad Mom recently posted…Deep Thoughts about my Son’s Laundry
My son is 10 and I know younger kids who do laundry. I think we need to work on that this summer. Deal? Currently I wash all of our clothes together. He’s in charge of putting the socks together and folding his and his daddy’s underwear because I can’t tell them apart. SMH and the holes in the jeans.
Kenya G. Johnson recently posted…10 Things Fish Tank Owners Wish They Knew Earlier
Deal. I know I have to make the time and teach him. Kinda like potty training!!
Katy @ Experienced Bad Mom recently posted…Deep Thoughts about my Son’s Laundry
I have three piggy banks on the window sill by the washing machine. All of the “found” money goes into one of them. As of today my two don’t know about this habit of mine and I happily throw the money into my “trip fund” bank account.
As for 11 year olds and laundry. Ugggh. I’m with you. Wish I could tell you it gets better …
Kelly L McKenzie recently posted…Lessons Learned Shoe Shopping
By now you should be able to buy all the sling back peep toe shoes you’ll ever need! 🙂
Katy @ Experienced Bad Mom recently posted…Deep Thoughts about my Son’s Laundry
Ha! #8! My mom used to say it was payment for doing our laundry. I plan to do the same with m son (now 2). 😉
Red recently posted…It Takes a Village…
You will probably be paid in rocks and other treasures for a while, but then the money will start rolling in!
Okay first questions, how did you determine it was ketchup and not blood? 🙂 This is too funny, I can only imagine the thoughts that went through my mom’s mind when she was doing my laundry at that age. Oh well us boys will be boys!
It was the scratch and flake off test vs. the lick test for sure! Yup, boys will be boys.
My husband does our laundry. I don’t know how it started but suspect that he was convinced I’d mess up his work shirts. So that’s okay. I’m alright with that. Chores stink though. All of them. I’d rather be lazy. My house looks like that’s the case.
Thanks so much for linking up with Finish the Sentence again!
Kristi Campbell recently posted…Love, Chores, And Filling In The Blank Spaces
My husband does his laundry, but I do mine and the kids. Seriously thinking of banding together with Kenya and holding ourselves accountable to teach our kids to do their own laundry!
Wait. Wait just a moment. Somehow, through a cruel twist of bloggerdom, MY list of MY thoughts when doing my son’s laundry just wound up on YOUR blog!! LOL!! What is it about small boys and the quantity and (poor) quality of laundry they magically generate? A fun post, and a great list.
Anna Fitfunner recently posted…The Ultimate Pinterest Party, Week 44
Thanks, Anna! It comforts me that I’m not alone with the ever-ending pile of laundry. 🙂
My six year old has the same problem with socks. And turning hers the right way is ridiculous because she has tiny feet. Of course they probably aren’t quite as stinky as a teenage boy’s might be, so there’s that.
Kelly’s piggy bank idea is genius!
I don’t mind doing laundry, honestly. For some reason, that’s one I kind of like. Therapeutic or something, I guess.
Have a great weekend!
Lisa @ the Meaning of Me recently posted…FTSF – About Marriage, Husbands, And Chores That Suck
My mom always loved cleaning, and my husband binge cleans, too. They swear it is therapeutic to them! I didn’t get that. 🙂
When did my son come live with you, Katy? Thank you so much for doing his laundry! (So glad we’re all in this together… from the fresh to the soiled).
Nicki recently posted…More Than A Smudge Of Flour
Definitely taking comfort in the fact that my son is not an anamoly! We can get through this…
There’s something about the laundry that makes the kids need me unnecessarily all the sudden, and I have an overwhelming sensation to poop, so I’m usually screaming, “Give me a minute” while I”m thinking, “Just get this load in and then unload your load in the bathroom, you can hold it,” and then I scream again, “Hold On. Mommy’s busy. Give me a minute!” and then “Is this a dark? Ah who cares. It’s going in. Just throw it all in. Oooohhhh hurry up woman. Butt you can wait.” All I can say is in retrospect, always make sure the pull ups are out of the pants. That’s the worst thing to clean up in the washer, diaper gel. LOL at finders keepers. I do the same thing, especially if packaged chocolate is involved.
Michelle AKA Crumpets and Bollocks recently posted…Cleaning with Kids and Other Things I hate Doing
Ha ha ha. I’ve washed the pull-up before. And I was half sickened, half fascinated by the explosive gel stuff!!
First off, you’re hilarious. I love your style. I do not have kids (though replacing the kitty box litter is definitely up there with unlikeable chores), but laundry brings me down. We own a condo, but it’s an old building with shared laundry. So I have to schlep everything downstairs to wash. Sometimes all the machines are full, which makes it worse.
I always set a timer so I’m back at the machine as soon as the cycle runs through. Last week, I arrived promptly to find a lady pulling my clothes out and throwing them in the dryer. No she wasn’t going to dry them for me, just getting things out of her way.
Plus, inside-out socks.
Bradley recently posted…Body Betrayal
Oh, those years of sharing washers and dryers! Glad they are behind me. I wish you the best with that lady and your neigbors.
Plus, kitty litter. Blah.
I got tired just reading this! I don’t actually hate the act of doing laundry…but gawd, it seems like it just.never.stops.
We went from one toddler boy to two toddler boys and I never stopped to think about how that would throw the laundry balance off in our house. Little socks have taken over!
Jill recently posted…An Open Letter to My Sons About Peeing in the Toilet
This is how I feel about my husband’s laundry! I swear, he think his clothes are dirty is he wore them for an hour.
My mother gave my brother, my sister, and me each a laundry basket for our 12th birthdays. We shrunk a lot of clothes and washed a lot of pens (and a Now ‘n’ Later, if I remember correctly), but boy, did we learn how to launder early!
Sarah recently posted…TToT70: Whoosh!
Yep, we are getting close to the age when I can pass the baton to him – or in this case the bottle of Tide!
Oh I am right there with you—I DESPISE doing laundry! Unfortunately I have many, many more years before my son can do his own. And with another child on the way, I just know the laundry explosion is about to get way, way worse. At least you found some cash this time!
Katie @ Pick Any Two recently posted…20 Small Steps to a Healthier You
My mom had me doing my own laundry by 14 or so, but she continued to do my little brother’s through college. I don’t know why other than I think she was afraid he’d ruin his clothes and then never go and buy new ones (cause she shopped for him too!).
I don’t mind doing laundry, and even like folding it. But oh, I truly loathe vacuuming.