Studies in Ethical Considerations: Laundry

In the midst of life, it behooves us (yes, I'm going to use words like "behoove." My college degree has to show up somewhere, dang it.) to step back and consider the ethics of our actions each day.  With increasing intensity, the querulous thinkers of our age ask the questions, "What are we doing to protect our environment?"  "Where is the responsibility of humanity to manage the resources of the earth?" "What right does mankind have to use the planet as it sees fit?"

These questions fill my mind as I am presented with this ethical dilemma each morning.  It generally happens like this:

Me: "Please go put on clean clothes for school."
Matthew: "These are clean! I just put them on three days ago!"

(PS -- the photo is of Jonathan, not Matthew.  But I like it :D)

Several considerations come to light.  Please consider:

1.  Excessive washing of my children's clothes may in fact be a waste of water and power.  This is true.   There are limits to our resources.  Am I being greedy by using more than my fair share?

2. Does present-day America have exaggerated expectations of cleanliness?  There has been a return to making sure homes are not "too clean," thus preventing a child's immune system from building up sufficient anti-bodies to ward off common illness.  There is a basic need for good germs, which allow the human immune system to function effectively.  Am I destroying that by insisting on too frequent washing?

3.  By day 3, the condition of Matthew's underwear (life motto: "TP is for chumps") does not bear close examination.  Washing may no longer be an option.  We may have to burn them, which causes air pollution, and then purchase more underwear, increasing consumerism and excessive packaging.

4.  But this would increase employment opportunities.  As we consume goods, we create a need for more goods, which creates jobs.  This allows people to have stable lives and increases their standard of living.

5.  But the underwear are probably made in China with human-rights prison labor.

6.  Am I, though, squelching his independence by requiring him to change his clothing on my time table?  Am I damaging his future ability to make choices on his own?

7.  If I grant independence before he's capable of making wise choices, am I only setting him up for frustration and disappointment by setting him up for failure because he does not yet have the emotional resources for an independent life?

8.  However the condition of his shirt presents more issues.  It is quite possible that the combination of snot, food, more snot, and just plain dirt are, in all probability, the building blocks of primitive life.  Am I essentially killing new life if I wash the shirt?  Am I causing a species to become extinct before it ever fully realizes its potential?

9. Or would this actually be introducing an invasive species?  Would I be the harbinger of the next Zebra Mussel or Kudzu?  Do I have an obligation to wipe this species out before damage can be done?

10.  Then again . . . holy flying catfish, what is that smell?

Dilemma solved.

When one is parenting boys, do not over think the issue. If the smell creates a whole new world of existence all on its own, the clothes must be changed.  Now.  And probably burned, but that can't be helped.  Ethics will have to deal.  But no kid of mine is going to school smelling like THAT.