Parents of very young children usually have to do loads of laundry, and low-income families tend to bring their kids with them to public laundromats. Inside one of about 14 laundromats in Chicago’s low-income neighborhoods, children gather for Laundromat Story Time, a Chicago Public Library program that combines early education principles with public outreach and a dash of parental modeling. Becca Ruidl, who runs the laundromat program, says families have adjusted their household’s laundry day to coincide with librarians’ laundromat visits.