Chores: Laundry - "Out of Sight, Out of Mind

"Is there anything I can do?" comes the familiar question. I plunk the basket full of freshly washed and dried laundry down in front of Pop and tell him he can help me by folding the clothes. His immediate comment EACH AND EVERY TIME is, "I'm not sure I know how to do this" and I ALWAYS say, "I'm sure you'll do just fine."

In reality there are challenges connected with the process which ALWAYS ends up involving me. #1 The old saying, "out of sight, out of mind" has direct implications for my dad and laundry folding. #2 Everything gets folded, matched and mated twice.

- "Out of sight, out of mind" goes like this. As he folds, matches and mates the clothes the problem arises as to where to put the stack. Balancing a pile of folded clothes on his knee eventually gets wobbly and he has to place the stack somewhere else. Often the stack gets placed back into the basket on top of the clothes that have not yet been completed. He digs around the edges of the stack until he can't see anymore clothes to administer to and believes he is finished. So, you see "out of sight, out of mind." As far as he is concerned the job is done.

- Once the clothes are somewhat folded, matched and mated I take the basket into my bedroom, empty its contents onto the bed and undo all the black socks that have been mated with the navy blue, the checkered that were mated with the dotted and redo the whole pile of towels, wash clothes, hand towels that were folded awkwardly and finish the pile that he never saw underneath. So everything gets a second fold, second match and a second mate. (Fitted sheets are out of the question. He doesn't even try.)

Once the job is done I tell him "thanks" and he always says, "Oh, I don't think I did a very good job." And I usually I tell him he did fine. Today he added another expletive after the task was completed. "You'll probably never ask me to do this again!" Today I laughed and said,"You did fine."