The Whites

A funny thing happens when my child wants to earn money: He’ll do almost anything to get it.

After mowing our lawn, cleaning the bathroom and taking out the garbage, Isaiah realized he was still short on the money needed to buy his newest obsession: Beyblades.

“I still need a few more dollars, Mom. What else can I do?”

I racked my brain for a minute as I tried to figure out what other tedious chores I could get him to agree to, when it occurred to me that there was a fresh load of whites still in the dryer waiting to be folded.

It took him four armloads but he finally got the clothes to the couch, where he preceded to comment on his inability to fold such a huge amount of clothes. Suddenly he stopped short…

“Mom, do I have to fold your underwear?”

“I have to fold yours, don’t I?”

“Yeah but…ugh, this is worse than I thought.”

30 minutes later, as he was still bending over the couch folding the whites, Isaiah said, “I think you should owe me more money for folding all these clothes. It’s a lot, and my back is starting to hurt.”

“You’re almost done, just work through the pain.”

He finished folding the whites, and was getting ready to collect his money when he noticed 5 socks still sitting on the couch. As he sorted through them, looking under the couch and throw pillows for their matches, I could see the confusion set in.

“Where?...How?...This doesn’t make any sense. I can’t find the matches to these socks anywhere!”

I cackled. Isaiah didn’t appreciate it of course, but there was something so freeing about finally being understood by my children, that I couldn’t help myself.

A few days later Isaiah came running in the kitchen with two crumpled up socks in his hands. “You’ll never believe where I found these two socks!

I knew this was going to be good. “Where?”

“I found one on top of the ceiling fan, and another in the downspout on the side of the house. Isn’t that strange?”

I put my arm around his shoulder and leaned close.

“No son, finding the matches to those socks in a single load of laundry would be strange. That you found them in the downspout and on the ceiling fan makes perfect sense to me.”