Make them do it themselves!!

Finally- I figured it out... how to make my children appreciate what I do for them:)  Well, at least in a small way. 

Tonight, before Kale went to bed he gave me a big hug and told me thanks for doing his laundry.  He went on to tell me he was so excited when he came home from school to see all his laundry folded and in his basket.  He was so happy that all he had to do was hang up his shirts and put the rest of his clothes away. 

Wahoo- lesson learned and a pat of gratitude on my back.

 

A glance into the past: I do laundry all day, every day.  I fold and sort pile after pile of laundry on my bed.  I ask the boys to come put their clothes away and they grunt and moan.  Their clean laundry often ends up in a heap in the corner of their room- soon to return to the dirty without even being worn.... 

Oh, how that made my blood boil! 

 

You want your kids to appreciate what you do for them- make them do it themselves!!

My boys do their own laundry.  Every once in awhile I like to do it for them.  It's fun to see their reaction- they think I'm amazing that I helped them.  I do this with some of their other jobs as well.

This summer I taught my boys (8, 9, and 11 yrs.old) how to do laundry.  Before this, I was buried in heaps of laundry-day in and day out!  I was sick of seeing clean clothes recycled into the dirty and newly folded clothes laying on their closet floors because they were too lazy to put them away or they had fallen off their shelves.  I tried to teach them they could wear pants and hoodies more than once, but often times I saw a different pair of pants worn for each day as I washed their clothes. C'mon- pants aren't like "Days of the Week" underwear, you can usually get a little more time and use out of them.  

I decided if I made them do their own laundry they'd be accountable for all of this.  They could now wash their own clean clothes as much as they wanted and could dirty as many clothes as they wanted as well.  So I got them each their own plastic laundry basket, wrote their name on it, and told them when it was filled they needed to do their laundry.  One of my boys still hasn't learned the lesson of being conservative on laundry and continues to do a couple loads each week.  My other two boys usually do laundry about once a week.  If they run out of clothes, it's their own fault for not doing their laundry.  My "load" of laundry has been lifted!  I am able to keep up on doing laundry for just Josh, I, and the girls. 

I taught my boys to check their pockets, take out the whites(I wash them), how to pour the detergent, take out the lint, and start the machines.  I used a sharpie and drew a star by the setting they needed to turn the knob to-a sticker would work also.  I taught them to fold their own laundry.  They have to do it upstairs on the table and when they are finished I check them off then they go put it away.  This way it doesn't become a wrinkled mess.  When I tuck them in at nights I take a quick look at their closets to make sure all is well- no clothes left abandoned.

I'm a pretty simple person and try to keep things to a minimum.  The easier, the better- not much time for the "above and beyond" with 6 kids.  I know many could argue that I'm not teaching them the specifics, the sorting,  and the fine details of laundry perfection.   But we don't have a lot of fancy clothes or even new clothes that I have to worry about. I'm just starting with the basics and it has worked. As they grow up they will learn more.