Laundry Day

I have two girls. Two girls who are two and a half years apart. They are very different personality-wise and there is no one who ever mistakes one for the other. However, they own a few items that are similar.

Specifically, clothing.

Sure, their tastes are different, but they occasionally share things. And although they’re not the same size, certain items can be shared. And of course, let’s not forget things like socks, which can be anyone’s.

That’s why I do their laundry separately. I hate doing laundry and like to get it done as fast as possible. The last thing I want to do is spend time deciphering whose clothing belongs to whom.

Occasionally, however, their clothes get mixed together, like when they borrow things, or when we come back from vacation and I throw everything in the laundry together—yeah, laundry is not my thing.

Now, I’ve been a bit busy lately, and laundry has had to take a back seat, but the past few days I’ve spent catching up and I finally got all their clothes done that needed doing. I washed, dried and folded. I even carried it up to their rooms and put it on their beds.

My kids, knowing how busy I’ve been, have been tiptoeing around me. You can’t imagine the surprise when my youngest very carefully asked me if I might have a chance to get to her laundry at some point, and my immediate answer was, “Of course, I’ll do it right now.” Apparently that was the clue that things could go back to “normal.” Because when I did their laundry, folded it and put it on their beds, I mixed some of the pieces up. And my youngest came downstairs and said, “Mom, some of the laundry isn’t mine.”

Here’s where I’m confused. She and my older daughter are the only two kids in the house. The clothing was obviously not mine or my husband’s. So anything she saw that wasn’t hers was obviously her sister’s. Yet, she came to me with a puzzled look on her face.

Really? You can’t turn around, take two steps to your right, knock, and give it to your sister? You have to ask me first?

I think it’s time someone started doing her own laundry.