Look again.

A woman looked out her window one morning to watch the new neighbor hang her laundry on the clothesline. “How disgraceful!” she said to her husband. “Her laundry is so dingy. Maybe she’s using the wrong detergent.”

Several days later she watched again as the neighbor, a young mother with three small children, hung the laundry out again. Again, it was dingy. “Poor thing,” she said to her husband. “She’s overwhelmed with those little kids and just doesn’t have the time to do a proper wash.”

This went on for some time and the woman became very critical of her neighbor. “Maybe she just doesn’t care about clean laundry. How embarrassing!” she said to her husband.

Then, one laundry day, the woman had decided she should go tell her neighbor, who was obviously clueless, how to do a proper laundry. Then she looked out the window. To her surprise, the neighbor’s wash was sparkling white. “Amazing!” she said to her husband. “She must have had some help for the laundry to be so clean. I wonder how she did it.”

Her husband smiled. “Yes, dear. She did have some help. I got up early this morning and washed our windows.”