Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Bad Mother

A week and a few days back Mr 18 and some friends decided to go to "the river" for some fun in the sun, some fishing and some swimming. That's fine, I loved going to the beach, so I encourage the kids to have fun there as well. However when he came home, he took the swim trunks he was wearing and threw them in the bottom of his dirty clothes hamper, then covered them up with another days worth of clothes. Fortunately I do laundry every other day, so the mass of wet only sat there for about 36 hours. Unfortunately the mass of wet was incredibly, disgustingly smelly! The river leaves a stench in swim suits and towels that is enough to make you run and hide. Well, either that or the fact that it sat in his hamper for 36 hours might have added to it.

A little less than a week ago Mr 18 and some other friends decided to go back to the river for some more swimming and fun. Before he left I warned him about leaving those trunks in his hamper again as a nice smelly gift for me. I told him he had to promise to bring them in the house as soon as he got back and rinse them out, throw the towel outside on the deck to dry and follow up with the trunks after they were rinsed. Of course he readily agreed to this as it was the only way I was letting him go to the river.

And now today, where are those lovely trunks? Well, they are still sitting in his car, along with his towel, and flip-flops. They have been in his car since he got back from the river. Did they ever make it inside for rinsing? Well no, they did not. And today, it is 96 degrees outside and his car is sitting in the hot sun. What a lovely thought, no? I have visions of these trunks growing legs slowly, and possibly a tail. Who knows what disgusting little creatures are living in them, and rotting in them. What a wonderful smell must be permeating his car. He hasn't really been using his car much, as he's been longboarding where he needs to go in order to save on gas.

So why does this make me a bad mother? Well, because I am not going to remind him again. I've done enough of that. The smell should be enough of a reminder the next time he gets in, don't you think?

3 comments:

Ronica said...

That's being a good mother. Make him wash them, too. Yuck!

When J does stuff like this (albeit I'm not his mother, but a wife often functions as one), I leave it on his pillow in the bed. That shows him. (He never repeats.) Of course, this is only if it's not stinky enough to offend my side of the bed. Heh.

Anonymous said...

Phew! Tennis shoes and lake water produce the same terrible smelly result and is a very expensive mistake.

Lo said...

Good for you! I was hoping you wouldn't grab them out of the car and wash them for him. If the smell is bad enough, he'll never make this mistake again.