Skid Marks: A Laundry Dilemma

The laundry is probably my least favorite house hold chore. It is very time consuming to sort the clothes into loads by color and fabric type. Then wash and put away each and every load. Which are usually five or six loads for our family. And if you have stains to deal with it only makes matters worse. And with two children and my messy Marvin husband I have more than my share of laundry stains.

When you hear the word skid mark, you think of the black marks left on the road after braking hard. But, in my family the term also refers to underwear staining after a gastrointestinal indiscretion. And as a parent of young children I see varying degrees of this. Everything from, "Hurry up to the bathroom next time, honey." To, "Oh my goodness, did you even try to wipe!" And with little boys you also get little yellow stains in the front of their shorts.

It doesn't take long for your kids' underwear to start looking not so fun to wear. Of course bleach is the first plan of action. But bleaching a garment too often can eat holes into the fabric, and ruin the elastic. And often bleach can only do so much. You could just go out and buy new underwear, but your children will just repeat the horrific deed.

Or you can just use this opportunity to get creative. Don't look at the skid marks in discuss, but instead as a craft project. With a fine tip black permanent marker, you can turn ugly brown stains into cute cuddly animals. Like bears or playful puppies. And remember the little yellow stains boys often leave in the front of their shorts. They can be made into sweet little baby chicks. So see with just a little bit of creativity you can make your own designer undies. I can hear it now, "Tacos for dinner tonight, yeah new Scooby Doo underwear tomorrow!"

Okay, I'm just kidding! Make the little monsters hand wash their underwear, until they stop leaving skid marks. Or just buy them dark colored underwear, and get on with life. But, boy wouldn't it be funny to see Martha Stewart do a show on underwear stains. Sometimes we here in America take ourselves too seriously and need to take the time to laugh at ourselves. Because people and what we do is just so darn funny.