Laundry Thoughts

Few things fill me with rage faster than realizing that the clothes I'm pulling out of the hamper were never worn.  Normally I would just put them back up in the kids' closets or drawers, except now they've been sitting with dirty underwear and socks piled on top of them, so that's just too gross.  This happened the other day with Camille: she'd gotten dressed for church, and then I pointed out that she wore that dress last week, so she should wear something different today.  I found both dresses in the hamper Monday morning.  I also recently discovered about five pairs of pants belonging to Bentley.   I'd just done laundry the day before, so I knew there was no way he'd worn all that in 24 hours. I asked him what was going on and he just shrugged: "Those don't fit me any more."

So I-- as calmly and rationally as I could manage-- explained to him that if the CLEAN CLOTHES in his drawer don't fit, all he needs to do is give them to Ryder.  If he throws them in the hamper, what  happens is that I'll wash them and put them right back in his drawer again so he will not have accomplished his goal.  

But I shouldn't complain.  Bentley is my only child who actually puts his dirty clothes in the hamper without me having to nag him.

Why is this so difficult for everyone???  (And yes, I know, I really need to make my kids do their own laundry.  But it's one of the few chores I really don't (normally) mind doing and it's so easy for me to do it while they're at school...!)

P.S. Bentley's pants not fitting him reminds me-- he just passed Kendra in height!  She's been taller than him for at least 5 years now (all the "data" I have on this is from us marking the walls in our house), so this is the end of an era!  According to our pediatrician, he grew 4 inches this year!  Holy cow!

One of my favorite shots from our photo session!