I used to be so awesome at folding and putting the laundry away right when it was done drying. I didn't judge, but I could never figure out why people would have piles of laundry in their bedrooms, waiting to be folded and put away.
I now completely understand.
Aside from the rare occasion where I don't have any loads of laundry to do for one day, there is a mountain of clean laundry in my room, waiting for me to have the time to fold it, and for the kids to put it away. That window of time seems to be going further and further down on the priority list, and the mountain seems to be getting bigger and bigger.
Last week, I decided to go in my room, and not come out until the mountain was conquered. I was folding away, when William walked in looking for his "special shorts" for the time being.
William is my clothing boy. He genuinely obsesses over his clothes. They truly do effect him mentally. He gets very attached to a certain pair of shorts or a shirt, and he will wear them, and only those clothes, for months. When I wash them, he stresses like crazy and follows me around asking me when they will be clean. He gets moody and insecure the longer it takes to get his clothes back. He is my only baby that never took a pacifier, but geeze, maybe his shirt was all he needed!
He does like clean clothes though. If he gets anything on them at all, even a drop of water, he will take them off and put them in the laundry. At lagoon, we got soaked on a ride, and the poor boy bawled and bawled and bawled until his clothes were dry.
So, back to the story.
I was folding laundry and William walked in and asked how to fold a shirt. I told him that I don't fold the shirts, because we hang them up, but that he could fold some pajama shirts if he wanted to. I then showed him how to fold a shirt, and he took very attentive mental notes.
He then grabbed a shirt and folded it perfectly!!! It took him a while, because it had to be just right in his mind, but he did it. I told him what a great job he did, and thanked him for the help. He giggled out of joy, and I figured he would then get bored an move on.
Instead, he went on to fold every single shirt in our huge pile of laundry. He folded Ben's huge shirts, he folded Molly's tiny shirts, he folded garment shirts, he folded sweatshirts, and so on. It was awesome, and so adorable!
Once he finished the shirts, he sat by me as I was doing the socks, and asked me to teach him how to do those. I taught him how to fold socks, and he then matched and folded all of the socks.
He absolutely loved folding the laundry. It completed something in him, and helped him to feel needed and helpful. He loved the perfection part of it, and making the clothes look nice and neat.
It was the perfect job for William.
He is hired!
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