Dr. Laundry Is In

I had to think about what to name this entry because I had another good title for it as well. Dr. Laundry is in because right now I am wearing scrubs that Mushi brought me from the hospital. I love my scrubs, they are quite comfy. But why am I wearing them you ask? Because I am doing my laundry at the moment and clean clothing is scarce at the moment.

I know what you are thinking, why is this guy telling me that he is doing his laundry? The answer can be summed up quite well in the other title I was contemplating for this entry, "The Guilty Confessions of a Spoiled Man-Child". I can count on one hand how many times I have done my own laundry in my life. I am not talking about just throwing in a pair of pants here or a shirt there, I am talking about actually seperating the lights from darks and doing a full load of laundry. I have done it, if my memory serves me, maybe...maybe...four times in my entire twenty-five years of existance. Pathetic.

Growing up, my mom always did the laundry around the house. I had offered to help quite a few times but she almost always refused and insisted on doing my laundry for me. My dad would always do the ironning. He is a neat freak and everything has to be done a certain way. To this day, I have never ironned a complete article of clothing by myself. Also quite pathetic. When I got married, Mushi did all of our laundry because she was also concerned about my lack of laundering knowledge and wanted to protect her clothing from the ignorant clutches of a husband that, while well intending, could quite possibly destroy many of her delicates in one fell cycle of the washing machine. So what it comes down to is that I have never really had to do my own laundry, that is until tonight.

Part of me feels very proud that I am actually washing my own clothes. Part of me also says I should be ashamed of myself for taking advantage of the motherly overbearringness unceasingly dished out by my mom. In many aspects of my life, I have never truly had the chance to be an adult and I feel bad about that. I feel that in some ways, Mushi had a hard time seeing me as a man because in quite a few areas, I was not much of one. This is especially true when it comes to taking care of myself. I have never ironned clothes, very rarely done laundry, almost never mowed a lawn, and seldom was able to handle my own money very well. All of these things were done by my parents or I have been bailed out by my parents and have never learned the lessons that life was trying to teach me. In a way, my well intending parents, cheated me out of a lot of experiences I needed in order to mature. I have known this for a while now. The thing that sucks is that I can see how Mushi would get kind of creeped out by me being so immature. How can I provide stability for her or our future kids if I can't even do my own laundry? I can do my own laundry now.

The money thing is another prime example. I have never been great with how I have handled money, though in the past couple of years I have gotten much better about this. Mushi was a great help here, though she still manages most of the household financial stuff. But when I really screwed up and got into a bunch of credit card debt, my parents bailed me out in one way or another. I needed to learn that lesson but my parents took the bullet. Credit cards are evil! I could not have sad that a few years ago. I will also never take money from my parents in that way again as long as I live. I can provide for myself and my family. I can take care of myself.

I know that I also mentioned mowing the lawn as something I have almost never had to do but that is a funny story I will save for a future post. Right now, I need to go check on my clothes.