Folding Made EASY!

fold (fōld), v.t.
1.  to double or bend (cloth, paper, etc.) over upon itself.

At least, this is what I mean when I say to my 15 year old, "Son, fold up your shirts & put them away."  (This is a tough command to follow, because not only does it have that difficult concept of "fold" in it, but it is also a two-part directive indicating something should be done after the successful "folding" operation.)

Confusingly enough, this SAME definition of "fold" is in my mind when I say to my 14 year old, "Son, fold up your money before you put it in your pocket".  Hmmm, a similar sentence structure here - maybe this is part of the problem.  Perhaps the final command wipes the brain of any memory of the first command?  This is leading me to believe that the word "put" (issued as a command) carries more weight than the word "fold".

Or, as my sons might say, "Folding is for losers!"

Assuming my sons are just mentally challenged as regards the word "fold", I pulled out my trusty dictionary to try to help them see the error of their ways.  Much to my chagrin, the dictionary has TURNED on me!  My sons have actually been following my orders to FOLD all along, as demonstrated by the second definition of the word:

fold (fōld), v.t.
2.  to bring into a compact form.

So, now where am I?  Apparently my older son IS folding his clothes when he wads then into a little balls, thereby 'bringing them into a compact form', & stuffs them into his dressor.

And my younger son IS folding up his money when he takes his bills & crumples them up as hard as he can, then stuffs them deep into his pockets (never two bills together or folded in the same way, of course).  In fact, the money is folded so well that it STAYS folded in the pockets all thru the wash until it is finally discovered by me during the ironing of school uniforms, at which point I actually have to work at "unfolding" the bills from their VERY compact forms.

But hey, I can adapt.  One of the key ingredients of being an effective mother is the ability to find a way to get the best performance out of her children.  I will not just tell them to FOLD any more.  I will be very specific & say:

"Son, before you put that shirt away, please bend it over upon itself."

"Son, before you put that money in your pocket, please double it over upon itself."

I am sure that these changes in my commands will be MORE than helpful to my sons & will figure PROMINENTLY in my being able to get what I want out of a fold in the future.  Note my movement of the word "put" to the front of these sentences as well, to avoid the backward-directed memory-wiping action it unleashes. 

To all you mothers out there - it is easy to get what you want from your boys.  Just remember;  boys are like dogs - they need simple, direct commands with little room for error. 

Just like our husbands, come to think of it... 
;)