Mumsnet Talk

For a while, I thought he was doing it badly so I'd bottle it and do it myself, but no, he's actually incompetent.

It's agony - he's trying his best, and he still looks like Mr Blobby with a household appliance sellotaped to his hands.

What's a suitable 50/50 household task division when one party to the agreement needs a cork on his fork to prevent random self-stabbing?

it's fine, just don't watch! how will he learn if you don't let him do it??

The simple solution is he does his and you do yours and split the kids stuff 50:50.

He will learn once he has to go to work in a shirt that looks like corrugated cardboard.

Do not jump in and do it for him. He will never learn that way.

Get yourself a nice up of tea and put your feet up. Do not watch.

just don't let him do your stuff.

in our house, if you do the ironing, you get to choose what to watch on telly

sometimes, DH insists on doing the ironing so I have to suffer watching him take 15 minutes to iron one small boy's T shirt and football

BetaDad - thank you for your perspective, but I should perhaps add at this point that DH is a ghillie to trade, and spends his days in crumpled shirts and waders by choice - his shame threshold is frighteningly low.

I agree with you all though - I really don't want him to do my stuff - but if I do my cat-bum face again at the state of my work trousers I think there's definite potential for meltdown

snigger - I feared that might be the case. Mind you I know a rather high powered QC barrister who used to iron his shirts by just putting them on, then running a hot iron staight down his chest and then putting a jacket on to cover the rest of the creases up. He did this when he was a student so I suspect he has learned by now.

Do not let DH do your stuff - that way leads to insanity. I would never risk doing my wife's ironing even though I am good at it.

I should count myself lucky - dh irons all his own stuff and I can probbaly say I've ironed 20 things of his (in emergencies) over the last 14 years!

I think the kids are rebelling against his latest efforts too, and they wouldn't normally notice the difference between creased and ironed unless you painted the wrinkles with nutella.

DD2 picked up her school shirt and came to me to check "if this is today's or yesterday's, because it's very crinkly on the sleeves".

Tommy - I'm taking your situation as a cautionary tale - it could always be worse!

What sort of iron have you got?

Men need MACHO irons. Ones that generate six bars of pressure and have honking 3 litre tanks.

DH is probably better at ironing than me. The last time I tried to iron something for him was our wedding day.

Fortunately his waistcoat hid the scorched cravat.

I'm crying with laughter - macho irons - WTF?

We have a big girls crumpled blouse of an iron - and it's LAVENDER coloured.

Could this be where I'm going wrong?

Can you retro-fit some kind of nitrous oxide supercharger and make an iron man-friendly?

Or go-faster stripes, perhaps?

Man's iron: www.amazon.co.uk/Bosch-TDS2510-Professional-Steam-Generator/dp/B000Y7YQYK/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

(Note: not necessarily recommending this particular model, we bought the Which? best buy, but it's no longer available.)

Haha, that's a fantastic bit of rebranding - "steam generator" is just so much more manly than "iron".

But it's not an iron. They actually force out high-pressure steam which comes from the base via a pipe, not from the iron itself.

OMG! I want a manly steam generator and look at these Vacuum Ironing Tables to go with it - no mucking about with dodgy ironing boards anymore. These monsters actually suck your clothes flat to a heated steel table and then 5 height settings so you can get your full body weight pressing down. It says they are the "ideal partner to our Gak Steam Generator" which can power two idustrial steam irons - one for each hand!

I know what I want for Christmas

Are you sure he's not doing it purposely-badly so that you take over?
That's what my DH does with a myriad of different house/garden related chores.

Then again, I can never quite "remember" which days the rubbish and recycling have to go out, which is probably motivated by the same laziness, and he puts up with it

DP winces at the thought of gardening and claims he doesnt do gardening.
He used to regularly drops hints about my ironing his stuff. Last time he mentioned it I piped up, I would do his ironing if he did the gardening, he hasn't mentioned it since

ABetaDad, did you jump up and down and squeal when you saw that link?

I'm trying to capture your enthusiasm, but it only really works with shoes, for me. Plus, I'm a little tense at the concept of a suction ironing table - I can forsee a world of mortifying 999 calls in the future:

"Hello, Officer, my ear is stuck in the ironing board, and I can't reach the plug .... "

why dont you do the ironing and give him sole charge of a shitty job that you hate as a fair swap??

snigger - PMSL at calling 999 with my ear stuck to the board.

I am unreasonably excited by all kinds of heavy industrial equipment and machinery.

Just had no idea you could get that sort of laundry/ironing kit to go in the home. While I was looking I also found industrial Miele washing machines with massively high spin speeds and huge industrial dryers as well.

I used to run a fleet crude oil supertankers (ships) and can also drive a combine harvester but do not have a car. I think there is something within me that I am still wanting to express now I am SAHD.

I can't think of any jobs worse than the ironing, NY.

My pet hates are bins, cleaning animal feeding bowls and cleaning then standing by as the heartless oiks despoil the perfection the bathroom, and he's already in sole charge of those.

another methodology for you, BetaDad, no combine harvester though

Extreme ironers are nearly always men.

www.extremeironing.com/

Bog ironing: www.extremeironing.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album32&id=pic3&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index& include=view_photo.php

Tomb Raider ironing: www.extremeironing.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album28&id=tikal_24_14&op=modload&name=Gallery&file =index&include=view_photo.php

Women clearly don't take ironing seriously: www.extremeironing.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album03&id=11100022_G&op=modload&name=Gallery&file= index&include=view_photo.php

It's very hard on the nerves to watch the incompetent. Mr.E. is splendid ironer , but watching him peg washing out is like watching a cow with a gun (the cow has the gun, not the observer).