busted by the laundry fairy
Thursday, July 9 
Just in case you’re wondering what the heck this is, please know that I wondered the same thing. Upon further inspection while putting my Youngest Son’s freshly laundered clothes away yesterday, I realized it was exactly what you’d expect to find in a dresser drawer labeled “pants & shorts”: about a half a cup of plain brown sugar shoveled into a coffee mug.
I must admit, I was a bit disturbed to find kiddie crack nesting right there in such an obvious spot. But not because I didn’t admire what a fine future planner Youngest Son had become: If he was grounded from dessert or his two older brothers ate the last popsicle, or he couldn’t scrounge 25 cents around the house to go across the street to buy Lemon Heads, by damn, he was prepared.
Bring it.
No, what really concerns me is where he chose to hide his stash. I was a champion sneak when I was his age, 11, and I also thought Tang mixed with water into a thick slurry was heaven. So he comes by all this naturally. What’s troubling me is that he picked his dresser as a place to store something so precious, that he’d identified it as a place where no parent ever goes.
Have I somehow taught this boy to think that he throws his dirty clothes into a hamper…and they magically appear back in his dresser, clean and folded?
A few years ago his brothers outed him for another bit of sneakiness: Youngest Son had gotten a hold of the Sunday Wal-Mart and Target ads, painstakingly cut out all the pictures of women in their bras, and slid them inside his pillow case for later examination. And really, unless I’m remembering to wash their sheets (which doesn’t happen very often) inside the pillow case is not a bad place to hide something.
Inside the pillow case does not leave me with horrific visions of the future, where Youngest Son is married to some wonderful woman I’ve hand picked for him, and she meets me at their front door one day, bags packed, and says, “What the hell were you thinking? Did you miss a few chapters in the book on raising responsible sons, Grams?”
No, this is not about sugar, it’s about laundry. And raising boys who know that the clean clothes fairy is actually a real person. And here's my latest epiphany: perhaps laundry should be done by the person who wore the clothes.
Oh yeah. Time to change things up around here.
Reader Comments (1)
My Dear Neese:
I don't care about the sugar. I want to hear more on your claim to being a "champion sneak". Inquiring minds want to know (right Shan?).
The Florida contingent.