Do your kids do their own laundry?

[wenmc]

Deleted

 

[KadysMom]

I do all the household laundry. DD8 cant reach the buttons, and I do laundry twice a week. I have just enough laundry to have full loads. I dont see her doing laundry anytime soon. She helps out around the house when I ask, but I pretty much do it all.

Her room is spotless everyday before she leaves for school. She empties her trash, puts the dirty laundry from her basket into the big basket on laundry day, and helps load the dishwasher.

I didnt do laundry until I was probably 18, and I figured it out, so I am not worried about her not being able to figure it out on her own.

 

[daughtersrus]

I have read this many times on some threads recently and I am not sure I understand it. When people say their kids do their own laundry, do they mean they wash their clothes separate from everyone else? If so, why?

My kids know how to do laundry. I frequently call out to one or the other to wash the towels, whites or regular clothes. They know how to use the washer and dryer with their eyes closed. They are also responsible for putting away their own clothes. We all take turns sorting. I can't imagine them doing their own laundry though. Isn't that a huge waste of water? I get wanting them to know how to do laundry but I am way too cheap to have them do it separately.

My older girls (now 23 and 20) have done their own laundry since they were 11 and 8. That's sorting, washing, drying, folding and putting it away.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

My Mom STILL tries to do my laundry. I lived at home until about a year ago (save for two years when I lived in OH) and it was a battle to get her to let me do my own laundry. She hates it when anyone uses the washing machine without it being at max capacity or that I would do a load of lights and darks (she splits everything into so many piles ). She would always wash, dry, hang or fold everything, and puts everything away. Ahhh, I love my Mom .

 

[Momvic5]

No, my kids do not do the laundry. I wash 2-3 full loads a day, and it would drive insane to have the washer going at all times of the day. It would also drive me insane to see dirty clothes sitting in a pile for days while it was waiting to make a full load status. Yea..I am a neat freak.

My mom was the same way...she did the laundry. I never did the laundry until I went away to college. I was able to read instructions so it wasn't a big deal....it was already in my personality to sort it and do it right(neat freak). Now, my oldest who is 14 has had to do all of our laundry a few times so he knows how to do it, but really, learning to do the laundry isn't brain surgery. Just a few times experience and a few days without clothes will teach one all they need to know. My dh still does the laundry the same way he did as a beginner....see how much you can shove into one wash and dry cycle. One would think that he would sort the laundry as he lives with a neat freak, but his thinking is just get it done as fast as you can. I think most people are either going to sort and wash and dry separate piles, or they are going wash and dry whatever will fit at the time.

I fold our clothes as I remove it from the dryer, but my kids are responsible for putting away their own clothes. I will do it for them if our schedule is crazy, but most of the time, they put away their clothes. I also know many families who have heaps of clean clothes sitting in different areas of the house. I think laundry and how it gets done is more of a personality thing than a learned skill. Sure we all learn how we are supposed to do it, but we all kind of do it our own way when we are on our own.

 

[Abbie]

My Mom STILL tries to do my laundry. I lived at home until about a year ago (save for two years when I lived in OH) and it was a battle to get her to let me do my own laundry. She hates it when anyone uses the washing machine without it being at max capacity or that I would do a load of lights and darks (she splits everything into so many piles ). She would always wash, dry, hang or fold everything, and puts everything away. Ahhh, I love my Mom .

I love your mom too, can she come to my house to do laundry??

My kids all started doing their own laundry for some of the same reasons I'm seeing here but the biggest one was throwing clean stuff down the laundry chute along with dirty stuff. I just got tired of it and turned over the responsibility to them.

But we don't get too worked up about laundry around here....discovered long ago that it didn't make much difference to wash lights and darks together so that's what we generally do. Nothing faded, nothing dingy. Our house is all electric and it's way cheaper to run the washer at off-hours so everyone here knows to avoid doing laundry during what the electric company considers "peak" hours. Laundry is usually tossed in after 9 pm and often transferred to the dryer before 7 am. Kind of a pain but it does make our electric bill go down!

 

[VickiVM]

My kids, 12, 14 and 16, have been doing their own laundry (including their towels from their bathroom and their own bed linens) for several years now. If they cannot fill the machine, they will ask each other to combine loads or ask me if I have something to add to complete the load. They know better than to wash just a few things at a time.

 

[punkin]

My Mom STILL tries to do my laundry. I lived at home until about a year ago (save for two years when I lived in OH) and it was a battle to get her to let me do my own laundry. She hates it when anyone uses the washing machine without it being at max capacity or that I would do a load of lights and darks (she splits everything into so many piles ). She would always wash, dry, hang or fold everything, and puts everything away. Ahhh, I love my Mom .

My MIL won't let anyone touch her machine. She loves doing laundry.

 

[SmallWorld71]

My youngest has a friend whose mom does everything. i have taken him on vacation and let me tell you this boy knows nothing.. he just throws his clothes on the floor and lets the magical fairy pick them up, clean them and hang them up for him... and when he gets to college he will either have a difficult time or send his laundry out..LOL

I don't think college will be the issue. It's his future wife that's going to have to deal with things.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I love your mom too, can she come to my house to do laundry??

Sure! We'll set her up on a rotation . My Dad and I think she uses laundry as therapy (and raking too, that woman LOVES to rake! ).

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

This! With a house full of boys, beside the fact I wanted them to know how to do laundry. They all wore the same sizes eventually and I had no clue whose clothes were whose.
My Dh would happily point out I didn't know how to use a washer when we married. We had crappy water in the house we moved to when I was about 11 so my Mom took everything to the laundrymat once a week so they would not get rust stains on them. Prior to that, she washed and ironed everything, even sheets and boxer shorts. She loves laundry and I LOVE when she visits now.
The boys are now self sufficient and tell the GF's the proper way to do laundry (learned from their Dad) of course! He says!
So now I need to go to the Budget Board and find outabout this crappy water heater we have, speaking of laundry

same thing here. DS14 and DH wear the same size and even own a few shirts that are identical. So I have to keep his stuff separated.
The next thing to teach is ironing. I don't iron, I hate it!! But the Navy taught DH how to iron and he's sooooo picky about it he does all of it.
I want my boys to be self sufficient too, my brother didn't know how to do laundry when he moved to Japan, that was a fast learning experience. LOL

My Mom STILL tries to do my laundry. I lived at home until about a year ago (save for two years when I lived in OH) and it was a battle to get her to let me do my own laundry. She hates it when anyone uses the washing machine without it being at max capacity or that I would do a load of lights and darks (she splits everything into so many piles ). She would always wash, dry, hang or fold everything, and puts everything away. Ahhh, I love my Mom .

My mom always does dishes and laundry when she watches the kids. Drives me batty!!! We have 2 totally different styles on how to sort clothes. And she likes to argue with the kids about how it's done. And she doesn't know how to drive the front loader.

And to the PP, I don't wash in cold. Permanent press warm/warm, extra spin cycle.