42. That’s how many pairs of underwear could go through my laundry in a week. That is if everyone changes it every day. Bahahahaha! We are finally at the point where that isn’t the issue, rather some of the people in this house change their underwear more than once a day- athletes who will shower and change more than once a day sometimes. But let’s stick with the 42 number and you will see why I only fold my husband’s underwear.
Honestly, nobody cares.
Look I am totally into serving my family and serving them well. But honestly, these kids (and myself included) do not care. They take the clothes I do fold and roll it, stuff it, and cram it into any space available in their room when putting their clean laundry away. So why would I waste one millisecond on folding something as silly as underwear? 42 pairs is a lot of underwear! I am confident that when they get married and settled into a life their own that they will never say, “I sure wish mom would have folded my underwear when I was a kid, that would have made my life so much better.” If they do, I apologize in advance for my lack of action.
Priorities.
I have other priorities over folding underwear. I have heard from so many moms that they are trying to balance everything. Well maybe if we would stop thinking that silly things like folding underwear make us a good mom we would have a little more peace in our lives. Balance means to have everything even out. So how many loads of laundry equals a bed time story? Does 6 loads of laundry on one side of the scale equal one or ten bed time stories on the other side of the scale? See what I mean? What is balance? And is there even such a thing as balance in relation to life?
I like to prioritize. Everyone’s priorities will be a little different, however, most of what I hear matters to moms most isn’t folded underwear. It’s things like; mentally healthy kids, spending time together as a family, making healthy meals, reading bed time stories, tucking their kids in and being present and focused. All of that is why I only fold my husband’s underwear. If it comes down to folding underwear over sitting with my kids after school – it will always be sitting with them after school. Always. Obviously this post isn’t so much about laundry as it is about what our focus should be. It’s about not holding ourselves to some kind of crazy standard that we think we are being held to. I’m pretty sure the majority of the stress we feel as moms is self imposed. We walk into someone else’s house and immediately compare ourselves to them. Someone questions why our kid plays for a certain sports league and we immediately feel guilty and second guess ourselves – STOP IT.
Listen I’ve done it. And once you get to a real place with your friends, you’ll find out they have unfolded underwear too. Or whatever their thing is. We have to be ok with how and why we do things for ourselves and our family. Neatly folded underwear is some people’s must have thing. It’s not mine. It’s my husbands 😉 He loves his neat little stacks in his drawers. I on the other hand could care less. I toss mine and my socks into my drawer and rummage through to get what I want. It’s not like I care if they get wrinkled-seriously now, I sit on them, they press out while I’m sitting, it’s all good, right? I think we owe ourselves mercy when prioritizing our lives to suit our families and not feel guilty about it.
You know what I do feel guilty about?
Missing an important event for my kids. Not sitting with them after school. Not tucking them in at night. Forgetting to pick them up on time.
And a ton of other things, but you get the point. I also don’t spend too much time on feeling awful for these things, because as I like to point out to my dear children, I’m human and can only do my best. I do not in any way feel guilty for one second for not folding their underwear. Ladies let’s get our priorities in order and focus on things that matter eternally. Because folding laundry…I’m not even sure that is mentioned in the bible ever. I could be wrong, it’s happened before. But lifting up my family, being my husband’s helper, serving and loving well (well as in what makes the most sense and makes our family the happiest) is what matters. So whatever your underwear folding is…let it go….and spend a little time on what matters most today.
As I have laundry going in the room next to my office now…I figured I’d share my favorite laundry products with you just for fun!
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Hehe, I love the title of this post! 🙂 and I totally love your message concerning priorities as well!! Thank you for such a sweet post to help this mama refocus!
This is hilarious. However, I like mine folded and Hubs does not. Trust me when I say we aren’t neat freaks, but my underwear isn’t teeny so folding it allows them to fit in the drawer. Sigh.
Ok! This post title totally grabbed my attention because, I too, only fold my husband’s underwear! My daughter does her own laundry (well, at least most of the time!) and I just don’t really care about my underwear being folded neatly in the drawer! My husband, however, does! You know? It’s the same with our Monopoly money whenever we play. He keeps his money all nice and neat in their proper piles all organized consecutively, while all of my money sits in a single hap-hazard pile! And I’m ok with that! (My hubby hates it, but, whatever!) Anyhow, you are so right about priorities! If we focused on the things that truly mattered to us as women, I really do believe that we’d be a lot less harried! Thank you for your thoughtful words and encouragement! This was a really great read!
I can relate to this so much! I constantly feel a ton of mom guilt if one little thing goes wrong, but then I realize that my kids might see it as a new adventure.