Number One Son has posted his annual blog post. It’s Seven Things You Should Really Have When Raising a Child and this is a list that really should go viral.

I must say though, that my reasons for #1, A washer and dryer, are different from his. For a large part of my childhood my parents did not have a washer and dryer and I didn’t suffer too much from having to spend a couple of hours at the laundromat every week. In fact, there were often other kids there and I got a chance to meet and play with kids I didn’t know and that was always interesting and fun. It was only when I was an adult that going to the laundromat became a miserable chore and a horrible and tragic waste of time so while we were still waiting on our firstborn we bought our first washer and dryer. Bonus: get a front loading washer. Little kids love to watch the clothes and the water tumble round and round.

Go read the rest. It’s all good; there’s not much I could add. Makes a mom proud, it does.

Conspicuously missing from the list is Books. I mentioned this and he said, “Of course books… I just assumed that books would be around like food and clothes would be around.” Yeah, you would think. But strange as it seems there are people out there who don’t have books, or they buy books for their kids and none for themselves. Having books and letting your kids see you reading books for fun (and information) is at least as important as having books just for your kids. It shows them that reading is something you can enjoy all your life, not something you do when you’re a little kid and then “outgrow”.