やっと我が家にドラム式全自動洗濯機・乾燥機が来た！！長い道のりだった。結婚する前、実家ではとっくに全自動洗濯機だった。仕事をしていた母は新しもの好きの合理主義者だったので、良いものはすぐに取り入れた。
しかし、お嫁に来たこちらでは義母は二層式洗濯機だった。洗濯は少量で何回も洗うこだわりがあった。だから洗濯時間は重ならないように工夫して、義母が朝なら私は夜のうちに洗濯をして干していた。
乾燥機は子供が生まれてオムツを乾かすために購入したから、これは早かった。そして今まで、乾燥機、二層式で頑張ってきたのだ、３０数年！！
やっと乾燥機が壊れてくれて、今でも少量の洗濯を大量の水を使って洗っていた義母の今後を考えてドラム式に踏み切った訳なのである。これで介護が必要になって大物の洗濯が出ても大丈夫だ。結婚したときのカルチャーショックを、今になって戻している。おもしろいものだ。さて、義母は慣れてくれるかな、ま、仕方ない
At last—our home has a drum-style, fully automatic washer-dryer! What a long road it has been.
Before marriage, at my parents’ house, we already had a fully automatic machine. My mother, ever the working woman and a lover of anything new, was quick to embrace efficiency.
But when I married into this household, my mother-in-law clung to her twin-tub washer. She believed in washing small loads, again and again. So I learned to weave my schedule around hers: if she washed in the morning, I would wash at night, hang everything out, and make sure the lines were clear.
A dryer came early—when the children were born, for the endless rows of cloth diapers. But even so, for more than thirty years I have endured, juggling the twin-tub and the dryer.
Finally, the old dryer broke down. And thinking of my mother-in-law, still using gallons of water for small loads, and of the heavier laundry that may come with her care, I took the plunge: the drum washer.
It feels as though the culture shock I experienced when I first married has, at last, been gently reversed. How curious life is. Now I wonder—will my mother-in-law grow accustomed to it? Well… she will have to.
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