Up Front and Personal - Even with the Dirty Socks

I am a firm believer in being up front with your children. How else are they going to be prepared for the "real life experience"? No, they won't ever REALLY be prepared, but hopefully, they'll have enough experiences to boost their confidence about dealing with life's realities.

We have a family meeting every week as part of our family night. We call it "Family Business". We discuss the calendar for the week and any specific issues we need to work on. Yes, there is always a handful of issues! We also ask if there are concerns any member of the family may have. Past concerns include, "So and so takes too long in the shower" or "we need to change the chores" or "Can I have my own room?" - NOT! 

We also express our concerns as parents to our children so they are aware of the needs of our family. It's very humbling to hear my children pray for our concerns or ask the status of a specific item. Our children know if we're having a money crunch and we need to tighten the belt. They know about our businesses and employment. They understand that it takes money to have a home, water, electricity and food. No, they don't need to know all the details and we surely don't try to worry them unnecessarily!

Back to where I was going with this...

We have an issue in our home. We've had an issue for a LONG TIME. We've had this discussion with our children before and it's time we had it again. It's the laundry issue.

Previously in our family meeting, I brought in a poster board. I used this to create a visual picture of our laundry nightmare. 

Example: We have ten people in our family. If everyone wears a pair of pajamas for only one night and then throws it in the hamper, by the end of the week, we'll have seventy pair of pajamas to wash. That's just pajamas! I literally drew 70 squares on the poster equating to 70 pair of pajamas. Now, if each person wears their pajamas several times and then puts them in the laundry, we can cut that down to 20 - 30 squares.

Example: If everyone wears a pair of jeans only once and then throws it in the hamper, by the end of the week, we'll have seventy pair of jeans to wash. Holy Cow - that's 7-10 loads of laundry per week for just jeans! 

Moral: We discussed being more careful with what needs to be washed and what doesn't. You CAN wear a pair of jeans more than once! A jacket can be hung up in the closet and worn MANY times before it hits the washing machine. We talked about carefully putting away our clean clothes so they don't mysteriously end up back in the dirty laundry basket. (This is a major annoyance of mine!)  And please, please, please put your PJ's back in your drawer so we only have 25 pair to wash this week!

More to Come...but until then, Stick-to-it!