Does everyone else's teens do their own laundry?

[Anonymous]

One time, I (mom) went to my college DD's dorm room to help with something. Her roommate's bed was filthy, her dirty clothes were strewn on it, damp towels piled up on the bed, actual fungus growing on damp jeans, dusty table, hair on floor etc. Tampons (unused, thankfully) were thrown in the cabinet under the sink, which was a bit leaky and the tampons were damp and wet.

The roommate was also pretty unhealthy as she had severe IBS. She also had behavior and relationship issues and had lots of drama. Thankfully, my kid was not involved. I was horrified that my kid was in that unsanitary environment.

Lots of college kids are unable to maintain a clean room and have clean clothes in college. The reason is not that they were spoilt by their parents and not allowed to do laundry or run a vacuum at home. No, the reason was that they were not raised in a clean home at al. They have no standards, and no idea of the routine chores that must be done.

[Anonymous]

I do most of the laundry. My teens and husband know how but it’s done more timely if I do it. They help fold if they happen to be around. My mom did the same for me. I’m a functioning adult now who does laundry. It’s fine.

[Anonymous]

I’m teaching my 17 year old twins how to do laundry now, it’s taking a while.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One time, I (mom) went to my college DD's dorm room to help with something. Her roommate's bed was filthy, her dirty clothes were strewn on it, damp towels piled up on the bed, actual fungus growing on damp jeans, dusty table, hair on floor etc. Tampons (unused, thankfully) were thrown in the cabinet under the sink, which was a bit leaky and the tampons were damp and wet.

The roommate was also pretty unhealthy as she had severe IBS. She also had behavior and relationship issues and had lots of drama. Thankfully, my kid was not involved. I was horrified that my kid was in that unsanitary environment.

Lots of college kids are unable to maintain a clean room and have clean clothes in college. The reason is not that they were spoilt by their parents and not allowed to do laundry or run a vacuum at home. No, the reason was that they were not raised in a clean home at al. They have no standards, and no idea of the routine chores that must be done.

My first roommate was like this. It was awful.

[Anonymous]

On the “it’s not efficient”….
So I taught my 9 year olds how to do their laundry bc during Covid (first months) their school did not give them new assignments on Fridays. They were supposed to wrap up any undone work and find a way to help around the home. We live in DC and have a small’ish stackable washer and dryer. So they got in a really good routine of sorting the own laundry and doing 2 loads. Flash forward and our washer busted in dramatic fashion involving a flood from the 2nd floor to the basement! The replacement washer we got was much larger somehow (still fit in our little laundry closet) and I could not justify the tiny separate loads and kind of took on everyone’ s laundry again. until last year when I started working more and just couldn’t keep up with them. By now, they have enough for sizable loads themselves - between school and sports clothes and the fact that they are now adult sized, they have two full loads when they choose to do laundry. Occasionally my daughter will need to do a smaller load and ask if I have like colors so we share a load.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope. My kids and my DH know how to do laundry, but I do the laundry every day. At least 2 loads- daily.

Why?

The family quickly falls into doing lazy laundry. Minimal sorting, whole lot of products, hot water, large loads, don't fold, pile dried clothes on the sofa - It is gross and the clothes come out looking dingy and pilled.

- I sort clothes into many categories,
- I treat stains and work on stains until they disappear
- I use color catcher in my loads, lysol sanitizer for stinky clothes
- I use minimal products and speciality products when washing clothes
- I uses extra rinse to get all products out of the fabric
- I use different settings (size, temp, duration etc) for each load to make the clothes come out clean and not wear them out.
- I clean the washer/dryer. Make sure that the doors are propped open, drain out the filter, remove lint, use affresh to sanitize it.

Family does laundry in a lackadaisical manner. They are waiting for personal robots to do all this work.

Well you have unusually high standards of laundry but how can you blame them for waiting on someone else to do it when you openly take it over and refuse to let them do their own. Do you think they will magically leave your home understanding this Byzantine system of laundry rules they never had to do?

[Anonymous]

They started around 10. I do need to remind them often, and occasionally I'll get it going or help put things away. But it's not mainly my job anymore, as it had been a few years ago.