Do you still do your kid’s laundry?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do everyone's. It just makes more sense to do full loads sorted by of color and material then multiple small loads of mish mash clothes. It isn't efficient and isn't good for the longevity of the clothes.

+1. I do about 7 loads of laundry on the weekend - that's it. I want my laundry machines to last a long time, I want to save water. Everybody I know figured out how to do laundry regardless of how they were raised. Messy people were messy, neat people were neat, regardless of whether their parents made them clean.

[Anonymous]

I converted my husband and kids to do their own laundry when my kids were tweens. Many years later my husband still does his own because he says it’s easier for him to do it his way. I love when a plan works.

[Anonymous]

I hate laundry - so now kids and DH do it all. Sometimes they run separate loads, sometimes they combine them. But all our kids know how to do it - taught them each around age 11.

[Anonymous]

My DH and I do the laundry. My high school kids are busy with school, sports and ECs and up until 11:30 pm or later doing homework. They are great kids who are willing to help out, but they don’t have much down time and I want them to relax when they do. Right now, school is their job and priority. My older kids were treated the same at that age. They knew how to do laundry before going to college but never had to do it regularly until they left the house, and adjusting to the responsibility was not a big deal. Now that they are WFH during the pandemic, we do their laundry again. When I go visit my 85 year old mom, she still tries to do my laundry!

[Anonymous]

I typically put it in and move it over. Teens fold/hang/put away.

[Anonymous]

If it is out in my basket or by the washer, I will wash and dry it. They fold and out it away. If the fail to fold and out it away, put clean items back in a basket, etc., they have to do their own laundry.

[Anonymous]

My kids (13 and 15 year olds) are in charge of all of their laundry. But I still make almost all of their breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for them.

[Anonymous]

We used the pandemic isolation as a time to teach these skills. They are 14 and each has a day of the week to do laundry. This cuts down on the small loads as they only do it on their day. Not sure how that will change once they’re back in school.

[Anonymous]

We're working on this now. I have to tell my son (13) to bring his laundry down and get it going in the washer on Saturday mornings. Then I have to tell him to move it to the dryer. Then I have to tell him to take it back upstairs. Then I have to remind him to fold it. And sometimes I'll help him fold if it's been sitting in the laundry basket for more than a day or two. But he knows how to do it and fold it, so I guess that's something.

[Anonymous]

My kids have done their own since age 7. We used to help them put it away at that age. Our washer uses water according to the size of the load so I don't stress about full loads. I also find that it's easier and faster to put away one person's set of clothes vs. sorting out five different sets of socks or whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10 and 12 year old do their own laundry and have for two years. They do it all, from start to putting it away. My 10 year old is terrible at folding, but he’ll get there with practice. I always rolled my eyes at the kids in college who had no clue what to do in the laundry room. I did a lot of unpaid instructional college courses in laundry in the first semester 😂

It takes about 5 minutes to teach someone to do laundry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids do a lot of things but laundry isn't one of them. We have too many people living in our house for one person to be hogging one of the washing machines or dryers.

Usually by late elementary school they can and will do a load if they need something that they discovered wasn't in the laundry basket. Other than that they don't start doing laundry for real until the summer before they leave for college. That's the system I've set up and I'm sticking with it. They are doing so many other things outstandingly well that I am not worrying about laundry.

If doing laundry is your line in the sand for whether a kid is a lay-about or productive then I think it is a dumb metric.

I think you miss the point. You shouldn't do things for your kids that they can do for themselves. It should be a source of pride for them that they can take care of their own needs. When you deny them that you do them no favor.

My kids know how to do their own laundry and never had chores beyond taking out the trash and recycling. They help out when asked. They are good people and good students. Sometimes chores are just something to fight about. With the pandemic my focus is on keeping my remaining child at home focused and mentally well. All she has to do is her school work. She doesn't wash a pan but she is doing all of her college apps on her own. That's enough. Keeping house is not rocket science. She'll do it when she needs to and she's got a lifetime of dishes and laundry and all that garbage ahead of her. More than happy to do it for her for now.

Great response. I agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If not, how old were they when you told them to fend for themselves?

12

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is weird to me.

Just from a privacy standpoint, it’s weird to be washing a teenager’s underwear. It’s not that I’m worried a college student wouldn’t be able to figure out how to use a washer in the dorms — of course they would! It’s more the principle that you’re having someone else wash your dirty underwear. It’s weird. It’s the equivalent of continuing to wipe your teens buts because “of course” they’ll be able to figure it out when they leave home! Some things are about privacy and bodily autonomy.

Why would underwear need privacy? I think this is an odd viewpoint.

So you’d let anyone see and touch your underwear? Ooooookay.

NP. Yes, sometimes my teen washes my underwear and DH’s underwear. The laundry all gets thrown together and we take turns doing it. He’s been helping out with laundry since he turned 12. He took over doing that more often than other things because he really hated doing dishes and cleaning the kitchen. I don’t care if my kid washes my underwear. He can do his own all of the time if he doesn’t want us seeing his.

[Anonymous]

I stopped doing my son’s laundry when he was 10. I have a front loader. If he can work an iPhone he can work my washing machine.