There are a lot of reasons people will give as an explanation to elucidate why they're done having children. Some of the most common reasons I've heard are "kids cost a lot of money, kids are a lot of work, we don't have the space, I don't know if we could handle it" and so on and so on. They're all understandable reasons.
But I have a new reason. A reason that eclipses all other reasons and I think it's rarely considered when a couple discusses whether or not to have another child.
Laundry.
Have you ever thought about the laundry? The sheer, massive amounts of laundry that will show up in your laundry baskets day after day, week after week year after year? It's mind boggling to me how many dirty clothes a little person can create. Paint here, marker there, grass stain here, leaky diaper there... the justifications for changing clothes midday are ceaseless, it seems to me. I'm not ashamed to admit, right here, out in the open, that I've ordered my older children to just leave their dirty clothes on, gosh darn it.
It's a fact that still befuddles me, but I'm quite sure that the three kids combined have at least double the amount of dirty clothes in the laundry room right now than Superdad or I do. At least. Probably triple.
New parents, take heed. The emotional strain of an additional child? Piece of cake. The money issues relating to the little darling? They work themselves out. But the laundry, oh! The laundry.
I may never recover.
