Do I need a Mother's Day gift?

...especially when we bought these this week?

Lemme 'splain. This is in our new house. The gem on the right is an Electrolux 11kg washing machine (holds 11kilograms of clothes). There are bigger ones out there, but this one has an AGITATOR in the middle.

Do you know what that means to this American?

Usually I'm anti-agitator and have to get on to my boys multiple times a day for agitating each other and have to quote "a sharp word stirs up anger but a gentle answer turns away wrath" to myself when they agitate me.

But this is different.

Most washing machines in Asia, for some unknown reason, don't have agitators in them. They're either front-loading washers or washers that rotate and spin the clothes from an upright position but with no stick made for washing the clothes sticking up the middle, just an open tub.

This leaves Every. Single. Article. Twisted. Together.

I don't need to do puzzles in Asia or watch that episode of Animal planet where snakes breed, because each load of laundry gives me a chance to figure out which pants leg or shirt to pull on first to get the ball of knotted clothing to pull apart. It's like I'm being tested to enter the gifted program each and every time.  "Now Sharon, please look at this mass of fabric in this tub for 10 seconds and tell me which article I should take out first in order to make emptying of the washer the easiest and fastest."

But not so with Mr. Electrolux with an agitator. That agitator is perfectly fine with me. I did about 3 loads of laundry while we were at our new house this past weekend (we haven't moved yet, just trying to get some preliminary things set up in the house like, for instance, appliances) and when I opened the lid at the end of the cycles you know what I found? Shirts, pants, underwear, sheets, blankets, socks, and towels sitting in a circle around the agitator like boyscouts around a campfire. All super-dee-duper clean and without one moment of feeling not-gifted because I pulled the wrong pair of shorts and made the knot worse.

No knots. Glorious.

Then Mr. Agitator's friend on the left there. That's a dryer. They are not so run-of-the-mill in these parts. They are never very big, cost a lot to buy and to run, and they are never part of washer-dryer deals at Sears. It's an Electrolux too and I'm kind of amazed I found both in the same color! (white was the only colors they came in!) And while it only holds 6kgs compared to the 11 of the washer, it is as much welcomed with it's collars-of-my-husband's-undershirts and fluffing of my boys' clothes abilities. No more scratchy towels. Revolutionary I tell ya.  Sure we'll still hang most things up in the free sunshine, but on those rainy days, and when nothing will save the day during potty training like being able to get the sheets washed and dried and back on the bed before nap-time, I welcome Mr. Dryer to our home with great happiness!

And yes, I have picked out a paint color for the wall. That is primer over bright orange (turned it pukey yellow) All of that will probably come in another month or so when we've actually moved to our new house. So nice to know Mr. Agitator and Mr. Dryer will be there waiting!

Also, in case he asks, I don't really consider the washer and dryer as substitutes for a mother's day gift. Just to clear that up.