The Misadventures of TUESDAY Laundry

TUESDAY laundry. What a terrible combination!

This time the folly falls squarely on Nicole's shoulders. Her folly was, once again, saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Our laundry ritual consists of me washing the laundry, me drying the laundry, me folding the laundry. The children's laundry is then separated into their own baskets and they are expected to take it down and put it in their drawers. Today as I was sitting down to fold the laundry, I asked Erika and Nicole to go and get their laundry baskets for me. Nicole told me that she didn't want to have to get her laundry basket, she just wanted me to fold the laundry. Instead of going through my usual "Poor Mom" tirade, I decided just to give her what she wanted.

I started to fold the laundry. Every time I came across some of Nicole's laundry, I calmly folded it and then told her that she needed to take it down to her room and put it away. I always seemed to find a piece of her laundry right after she had gotten back from the last trip down the hall and restarted her previous activity. It was funny to watch her growing frustration(I know I'm a terrible parent)as she was called away from her play again and again. It turns out that a weeks worth of laundry takes a while to put away if you do it one piece at a time. To her credit she lasted about thirty minutes before she started yelling about the amount of laundry she had to put away. I, of course, had to remind her that it was her idea not to use the laundry baskets. She did bring me the laundry basket in time for the last pair of jammies and three pairs of sock.

I'm not sure if Nicole took a lesson from this experience. The lesson that I'm taking is that sometimes giving in to a temper tantrum can be kind of fun.

P.S. To anyone wondering what Erika was doing during this time: Erika didn't get her laundry basket either. So she was also puting her laundry away one piece at a time. Her laundry lacked the drama because she didn't add any. She ignored my request for the laundry basket and she put her laundry away without comment. I do need to confess to not adding the vindictive timing that I used with Nicole. I wanted to show Nicole that sometimes it's better to just do what you're asked and not argue.