Can I go to the Laundromat

Mom, "Can I go to the laundromat w/ .....".

This question was posed to me by my oldest on Friday evening. She was pleading with me and my husband to allow her to go to the laundromat w/ her friend. She thought it would be so cool. As I was looking at her I had to just chuckle at the irony of life. Growing up my family frequently experienced long stretches of time when we did not have a working washer/dryer. This required Saturday trips to the laundromat. Now although I often found this enjoyable b/c my mom would let me wander around the shopping center where the laundromat was located while she washed. I only had to show up to help fold. It was extremely inconvenient. I used to wander what it would be like to be in a family who were financially stable enough to always have a functioning washer/dryer. I was also a little embarassed about having to go to the laundromat when the majority of my friends didn't have this issue. So here I am comfortably enjoying the convenience of always having a functioning washer and happy that my kids don;t know the stress of having to drag tons of clothes to the laundromat every Saturday and my daughter is begging for the opportunity to go the the laundromat!!!.

This once again highlights the fact that the things we focus on as being indicative of being comfortable. Or the things that we promise ourselves we will do differently for our children in our quest to give them a better life than we had often times turn out to be pretty insignificant.

My husband and I looked at each other and had to share a chuckle b/c he too was familiar w the 'horor' of treking through the neighborhood to go washing while your friends were hanging out. I am far from perfect but I do try to periodically check my neurotic need to give my kids everything I never had. I try to remember that my experiences made me into the person I am today and if I had not gone through a couple of difficult periods I would not have learned how to both cope w/ life and to be grateful for the things God has blessed me with.

We didn't let her go but only b/c we weren't sure of how she would be supervised. We also had already planned to watch the Olympics opening ceremony w/ the family. Was that awesome or what. I was totally impressed w/ the ceremony. I tried real hard not to think of all the negative aspects of life in China. I could not stop myself from thinking that if any of the performers made a mistake would they be punished in some horrible fashion. Oh well, until next time.