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One of my goals as a mom is that our kids head off to college with some basic life skills like money management, time management, cooking, sewing, laundry, and driving.
Our drier died after almost 12 years of service. When our new dryer arrived, I figured this was as good a time as ever for the kids to consistently to do their own laundry. Currently, the kids’ laundry is combined with either mine or my husband’s to make up a full load. My husband prefers to use a scented detergent. I prefer unscented detergent due to an allergic reaction to scented detergent.
Each child has had a few mornings of “I don’t have any pants” or “I need clean jeans” or some variation on the theme. They’ve probably had a few more than usual, but it’s hard for me to remember because, you know, chemo brain.
It may take a bit of me reminding them to do their laundry, since it supposedly takes 21 or 28 days to form a new habit or maybe 1 or 2 times of not having any clean clothes.
In the spirit of independence, our son took the iPad, his Boy Scout uniform, and patches and went to the basement. Curious to what he was doing, I followed him downstairs. Turns out he wanted to sew on patches to his uniform, a task I usually do and usually do right before a ceremony. He was planning on finding a video on YouTube, because he didn’t want to bother me. I was touched by his thoughtfulness but gave him an in-person sewing tutorial.
My son is left-handed. I’m right-handed, so after I figured out how it would be from his perspective, I taught him how to thread the needle, tie off the end, and make a few stitches.
He quickly got the hang of it. After he sewed on the first patch, I left him to his own devices and he emerged from the basement with a smile that lit up my night with the confidence that he’d sewn on five patches all by himself.
Awesome – the kids are doing their laundry and sewing on their own patches. Thank you cancer for putting into motion two life skills in one week.
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