When Aubrey Rose turned five,
I decided it was time for her to start doing her laundry.
The few weeks before her birthday,
I prepared her by talking about how when she turns five
she gets to do more fun things, but she also has more responsibility.
To be honest, I thought I would make her do it once and
it would be so frustrating and so much work FOR ME that
I thought it would probably be one and done.
What I didn't expect,
was how much she would love her new job.
I mean, absolutely loves it.
She has done her own laundry now for about 7 months.
I do the rest of the laundry for the house and I leave her basket alone.
When hers fills up, I tell her it is laundry day
and she has not complained once in the 7 months.
On this day, she tried to see how many pairs of underwear she could hold with her tongs,
or as she calls them her "chompers."
Then, she took it a step further and said it is almost like a lollipop.
Her favorite part is using her chompers to reach the hard to reach places at the bottom of the washer and then she chucks them into the dryer.
The job doesn't stop at the dryer.
For sure the hardest part to do on her own is putting it all away,
but she does it!
She hangs them up on hangers.
She folds them (in her own way that I sometimes change later).
The best part is almost every time she does it with a happy, happy heart.
By now, she does the washer and dryer steps by herself.
For putting the clothes away, I am in the room with her the whole time.
I stay in mostly to keep her focused on the task at hand,
but also for helping with the hanging the clothes on the hanger part.
I will hold the top of the hanger,
while she hangs the clothes up and then she puts them away in her closet.
One day, as I was folding Blake's pants and she was doing her laundry too,
she said to me...
"Don't you wish Daddy could do his own laundry?" HA!!
She gets it.
She understands the clothes are hers.
She wears them.
She gets them dirty.
She has to clean them
AND put them away.
She gets it.
Not going to lie, it is pretty great.
I highly recommend having laundry helpers. :)
