Mom Knows Best

I used to feel like I was pretty good at what I did. I was a pretty good assistant to 3 great brokers. I was pretty good at making posters, videos, helping plan assemblies, and organizing student functions as an SBO in high school. I was good at school; I always had good grades.

Then...I got pregnant. It did something to me. I am still good at some things. For example, I make some pretty cute kids (not that I'm biased or anything).

When I became a mother, I discovered a whole slew of things I did NOT do well. One of those things is keeping my towels smelling fresh and clean. Now, understand, that I am pretty vigilant about switching my clothes from the wash to the dryer. It is very rare that I forget them and leave them sitting. Even when I did forget, I made sure that those towels got an extra wash or two. Despite my best efforts, my towels still had that mildew smell. I started asking the experts and I heard many tips: wash with Oxyclean, wash them immediately after use, never leave them wet, give them an extra rinse cycle, wash with HOT water, etc. Then I heard the one that made me laugh till I peed my pants (a common occurrence since my children were born!)

Someone told me to add 2 cups of vinegar to the rinse cycle on my towels. Now, all of you expert moms and laundry-doers probably already knew this trick. I really had a hard time believing it though. Aside from believing that something that smelled so bad could possibly make my towels smell better....

You see, vinegar to me is like Windex to Toula in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".

Except it wasn't my dad who thought that Windex could fix anything, it was my mother! My mother thought that VINEGAR could fix anything. It could clean anything. It could grow facial hair. It could put hair on your chest (darn you mother). It could make you fly. It could move mountains or even cure cancer! She would make us drink vinegar when we were sick. When I had bad acne, she had me wash my face in vinegar. And when my hair started falling out after I gave birth to my kids, she said I should drink vinegar and probably wash my hair in vinegar for good measure. Seriously.... I thought she was a FREAK!!! And come to find out... she was right.

Not that I thought she was lying to me, I just thought all those paint fumes and marker fumes from so many posters and school projects were finally getting to her.