I’m honored to connect with my friends at Clorox as their CLX Champion to share small victories in motherhood, challenges in home life and humble efforts in building a legacy that makes this world a brighter, kinder place.
The week before my 12 day heritage trip to Cuba, I almost canceled the whole thing. My daughter – a total mama’s girl – was having a hard time adjusting to the idea of being without me for the extended amount of time. Who would do her curly hair? Who would help with her Spanish homework? Alina worried about so many things that, while I would miss her like crazy and was dealing with my own mom guilt and self doubt, I didn’t want to leave my child filled with hopelessness or despair. I wanted her to feel empowered – I wanted her to persevere. And I wanted those feelings for me, too.
In sharing my feelings with a neighbor and close friend, she suggested I give her a list of chores and things to accomplish, including a new skill that she can practice while I was away. From piano to helping her brother with his early readers and even doing the dishes so her Dad didn’t have to, I put some big expectations on my girl hoping to prove that she was stronger than she thought. My sweet neighbor also gifted me with empowering words, reminding me that woman deserve to pursue their dreams even after they become moms.
Lessons on Laundry and Life
The lesson on laundry happened by chance, but when she began to ask questions on the reasoning of how we tend to our clothes, I figured this might be a good opportunity to reinforce the importance of perseverance. We started by sorting the dirty clothes.
“But Mama, why do we have to separate the clothes? Why can’t you just wash them all together?”, she asked. In that moment, I thought of the fear and guilt I had leaving my kids and gave myself grace as I offered her this lesson. I teach my kids to recognize their emotions to better control their actions so I reminded her, “You know how Mama tells you to listen to your heart so your mind knows what to do? It’s kind of the same thing with laundry, baby. The best way to clean and protect our clothes is to recognize what they are: dark clothes stay together so the color doesn’t bleed on the light colors, light colors need more bleach to make them look like new. There are also delicate clothes and big bulky items that need special attention. It’s just best to recognize what you’re working with first.”
The connection was subtle, and I wasn’t entirely sure she even understood, but I kept the analogy up as we poured in the detergent and talked about how to set the washer machine to the appropriate settings. On the occasion that we found a tough stain, we pre-treated it with Clorox 2® Stain Remover & Color Booster Liquid and also poured some into the laundry for good measure. We’ve been using this product for months and it works great on getting stubborn stains out of the kids’ uniforms. Pair it with your favorite detergent, and you can actually remove 4X more stains and brighten 2X more than using detergent alone.
Of course she had questions on why this process was necessary, and I reminded her that much like our hearts, sometimes laundry needs an extra boost to have it come out looking its best. “Think of this step as spending time with your friends or brother when he’s playing nice. You feel so much better when you have a friend around sometimes, don’t you?!”
I can see the wheels turning in her head as they were in my heart. She was understanding: to persevere through the tumbling wash of life, you’d have to be prepared and tend to your heart so that you’ll come out feeling and looking your best.
Of course our laundry came out beautiful because this stuff is awesome, but I hoped that my kid was a little more prepared for the days while I was away.
The day we parted ways for my big adventure, Alina was very upset. She cried and held me as we stood next to the open door of our taxi, not letting me get into the car. She was on the verge of hysterics, holding it together by a single thread. My heart broke and, again, I almost completely canceled all plans.
But then I was reminded of our lesson on perseverance and laundry. I sorted through my own feelings of doubt and worry, and also helped Alina recognize her own. I asked her to follow the steps we talked about that day and to practice self-care with her daddy (they went to the movies!), spend time with her favorite people and that she would come out of this experience brighter and stronger.
And she did!
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