After seven years and three kids, I thought I’d seen it all. Slime on the carpet, gum on the couch, marker on the furniture… you name it, I’ve lived through it all. You would think there’d be no room for new forms of catastrophe. You would be wrong.
My three year old daughter has the new life goal and hobby of picking out her own clothes and dressing herself each morning. It’s adorable. The clothes never match but she’s confident she looks great and is super proud of herself. Being a big girl is ‘the best’!
After dressing, I’ve taught my daughter to pick up her pajamas and toss them into the laundry basket. I’ve also taught her to toss her pull-up into the trash. On a good day, she does these two steps. Not all days are good days.
On this one day, my daughter puts her pajamas in the laundry basket. Unbeknownst to me, she also tosses her pull-up into the laundry basket. An honest mistake will become my living nightmare.
Pressured for time I run a load of laundry first thing in the morning with plans for a second load to follow. This first load contains the usual dirty clothes that belong to myself and the children. Among the items are a few brand new Justice shirts for my kindergartener. In case you didn’t know, Justice is one of the ‘top’ hot and trendy stores to acquire the cutest clothes and accessories desired by young girls. It’s also not cheap. Thinking my day is off to a good start, I run the wash load and move on about my day.
Upon my return to the washing machine, I open the lid to an utter disaster.
THOUSANDS of tiny sticky gel particles covered every single clothing item in the washing machine.
I pulled out piece after piece of clothing, held it before my widened eyes and wondered what the heck happened. The new Justice shirts, destroyed. My work pants, ruined. Then, among the casualties there it was. The culprit. A swollen fully engorged pull-up. The unthinkable had happened.
I WASHED A PULL-UP! “How on earth am I going to fix this tragedy?”.
“Should I run the load again and pray for a miracle?”
“Should I toss in dryer and cross my fingers it dissolves from the heat?”
“Will this misfortune break my machines?”
I considered shaking the clothes outdoors or trying a lint brush but I could tell those efforts would be futile. I took my chances and tossed the clothes into the dryer for 5 minutes. Big mistake. Globs of goo had invaded every crevasse of the dryer which I now had to wipe clean. Plan B, back to the wash. After I wiped out the washing machine, I tossed all the clothes back in and re-ran the load with soaking. Thankfully, this worked wonders. Any leftover residue was resolved in the dryer. Heat does cause these little beads to coagulate into groups and head to the lint tray.
All was not lost.
If you ever wash a pull-up, don’t panic. The effects can be reversed. In fact, looking at our clothes today you’d never know the bead battle we faced.
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The Woman with a Day Dream 