15 shirts a week

[theonlygirl]

DS2 starts big school in September, meaning there will be 15 shirts in the laundry each week. DH 5, DS1 5, DS2 5.
no issue washing and drying them but it will be a cold day in hell before I stand ironing their shirts. I don't use a tumbledryer so they all definitely need ironing.

Option 1 - make them iron their own.
Option 2 - drycleaners

Curious to know what others do

If they are just starting secondary school, heading to puberty etc, it's quite grim not to have a clean shirt each day!
Teen BO is not pretty!!
Definitely clean shirt each day!

So true!!!

I'd iron my 11 year old and get my 15 year and definitely my husband to each iron their own
I'm sure your husband can spare 15 mins to iron his shirts at the beginning of each week.

I'm sorry but that is completely unacceptable to do to your children. You need to be making sure they're in clean clothes and if they are teenage that is grim.

Loving that we’ve now got 15 pages of subject matter on ironing shirts! We’ve really progressed, Mrs Beeton would be proud!

@Hallyup89 2-3 shirts a week here pp, more if any food disasters, cuffs get really dirty on school desks.

Shock horror, clean socks and pants daily too for all!

DH can do the kids when doing his own

You DH should do all 15 shirts if you’re the one washing them!
My exH could iron 5 work shirts in 5 minutes and kids shirts I buy the non iron ones, at most 10 second iron on the front needed.

I’ve just bought an airer that you hang hangers on, hoping it will revolutionise my life as everything will dry nicely and we can just take the clothes on hangers and put them into the wardrobes - fingers crossed!

It's funny how perceptions change with time. Some of my fondest memories are of making my children's lunches. Asking whether tuna or ham. Asking whether an apple, banana or satsuma. The cheese string. The yoghurt. The little bottle of water.

My dc loved input. And I loved doing it. I absolutely loved doing it. It's just a kindness I think, to want to prepare food?

I'm pretty sure that the OP doesn't work outside the home? 18 hour days leave 6 hours for sleep. If you can't even stretch to ironing a shirt lol, for 15 minutes, while your DH works 18 hours - what the fuck are you doing?

I also, weirdly, loved preparing their uniforms! Maybe I'm just a weirdo. I also worked full time. I would be up at 6, bread in the oven, a laundry load on and hung out by 7. While they were on I'd have taken a shower, and done my makeup. Out of the oven with the bread, and washing hung on line by 7.30. Then I woke the dead lol. Porridge (the microwave handy shit from Lidl). A battle always ensued about brushing teeth and getting dressed lol. But that was just it. That's just being a Mum?

If the OP also works long hours, then absolutely, household income would go on a lady to come in and iron! Without question.

A) it’s nice if you like doing it but there is equally nothing wrong with choosing instead to teach your kids to take care of themselves
B) Why would you think the OP doesn’t work? Her kids are in secondary school.

Not it’s not ‘just being a mum’. Being a parent is living and supporting your children and ensuring that their key needs are met. You might do that by making their lunches, you might do it by teaching them to do it.

Is the idea that people are different completely alien to you?

DH can do his own.
I'd do the kids on the basis that they would choose to go out looking like scruffs if I didn't. There are no decent shirts that don't look better with an iron.
The good news is that the now adult DC's recognise this and iron their own shirts.
Oh ..... and definitely one shirt per day.

"Being a mum" is also about teaching your child independence and encourging them to do all that for themselves.

It's funny how perceptions change with time. Some of my fondest memories are of making my children's lunches. Asking whether tuna or ham. Asking whether an apple, banana or satsuma. The cheese string. The yoghurt. The little bottle of water.

I assume those are not memories of making lunch for a teenager though?
Making lunch for a 7 year old is rather different.

DH can do his own.
I'd do the kids on the basis that they would choose to go out looking like scruffs if I didn't. There are no decent shirts that don't look better with an iron.
The good news is that the now adult DC's recognise this and iron their own shirts.
Oh ..... and definitely one shirt per day.

A. Yes.
B. She hasn't mentioned that she works. It's something you would normally mention in relation to a rant about household chores. Perhaps she works 20 hour days!

It's funny how perceptions change with time. Some of my fondest memories are of making my children's lunches. Asking whether tuna or ham. Asking whether an apple, banana or satsuma. The cheese string. The yoghurt. The little bottle of water.

I assume those are not memories of making lunch for a teenager though?
Making lunch for a 7 year old is rather different.

Yes. I far prefer drones.

Not really. Apart from just hearing grunts and not wanting to eat anything and 'I'll buy something with the lads'. 'Mum, do you know how many calories are in butter?' It's more of a battle lol. Or

'I told you to buy mango juice!'.
NO YOU DIDN'T. NEXT TIME DARLING, YOU COME TO TESCO AND YOU BUY YOUR LUNCHES AND YOU MAKE THEM.

We've had that shite too.

I'm pretty sure 18 hour days are salaried and not minimum wage type jobs (as that would be an illegal amount of hours).
I'm assuming DH has a good job. Stressful. Long hours.
I'm also assuming OP doesn't work.
Stand to be corrected if circumstances are entirely different.

Back in my day............. in 1843............
I, the female child, had to wash up after the dinner for the entire family while my older brother had to 'study'.

I've been a little slave as a child/teen.

My children know how to do things for themselves. Mainly because, if they disagree, then they are told to do it themselves!

I don't iron shirts. I have if I've soaked them but not routinely. Just hang to dry. DS is 16 and still doesn't need a clean shirt everyday. They last for two days, after a day they smell of nothing but deodorant. They are all different though I guess.