Laundry

Clayton came to me this morning with tears in his eyes because I told him to go and get dressed but he had no clean pants to wear - he would be too cold today if he had to wear shorts he said. I decided that today was as good as any to teach him how to do his own laundry. He's seven but he can do some pretty amazaing things - doing laundry is just turning some dials and pushing a few simple buttons. Piece of cake. We've got a great hamper that has 4 compartments where everyone's dirty clothes gets sorted right from the start, so that step is done. I walked through the process with him - it seemed really easy and he got the hang of it. I became quite excited that I might be able to put him to work in the future doing a chore that I hate. As we worked, he became really interested in watching the water fill up in the drum and so I left him there to watch but instructed him to put the lid down when he was done so the cycle would continue. Not concerend at all I walked away. As I passed by the laundry room a few minutes later I saw Clayton trying to be "helpful" mashing the clothes down into the washer . . . with the toilet bowl brush! What was he thinking?!! Maybe I was a little hasty in letting a seven year-old boy do MY laundry.