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

Don't we all?

DH was not DD1's father.

I always woke her, though he sometimes did bedtime.

One morning, I was under pressure and asked DH to wake 'Jane'.
3 minutes later, this little targe comes down the stairs in an utter rage.
What could have caused this?
DH, knocked on the door, turned on the light and shouted 'get up'.
Now I didn't realise until then, that I had a weird way. I would knock on the door gently, then open it, and whisper 'Jane, it's time to get up' until she woke.

She did not speak to DH for 3 days after that. He was never put on 'waking the dead' duty ever again 😁

I think that when you've come from a home lacking in any kindness, it has been important to me to try to ensure that there is gentleness and kindness. The world is not nice. At least have them know that their Mum and their home is a nice place.

She was 6. 😆

Believe me, a time will come when you will remember those little things that made them feel loved and safe and supported.
Will they learn? Of course they will. When the time is right.

Yes and as I said it’s a gradual thing, so the age where they are able to do it reliably which is different for each child. There is no age, it’s not a cliff edge, it’s a learning process. So my 15 year old gets themselves up for school, sorts their own breakfast, school stuff, clothes, makes the bed, gets themselves out the door on time etc. My 8 and 11 year old don’t do all of that independently.

But we don’t do everything separately we are a family so I might make breakfast for my 15 year old while chatting in the kitchen or they may make it for everyone while I put some washing in, including theirs. The point is they learn the skills to do it and my input gradually reduces.

They know what’s expected of them. If my DM called round and I was making myself some lunch I would make her some, I wouldn’t say oh you’re responsible for your own.

I think there's a case of fitting the person to the task?
So, DH was good for bins, feeding the dog, fixing things, blah blah.
DH also learned aged 35, how to bake bread!
What DH seemed incapable of was laundry. Or figuring out what went in the recycling bin and what went in the waste bin.
In a family, we all have strengths and weaknesses and varying amounts of time.
It's about trying to work together I suppose.

Oh, other tasks DH was good at was peeling vegetables and washing dishes.
Some people are just better suited to some tasks!

All my sons were taught how to iron a shirt properly before High school; ISTR it was part of some badge for boy scouts. They also had a clean ironed shirt for school every day all through secondary school . Mostly, school and DH's work shirts were ironed by me, DH or our domestic help; but the sons usually did their own if it was a special shirt for a date , party or concert.

These days we only iron linen; and DH does nearly all of it.

My ds used to make his own porridge in the microwave when he was at secondary school (can't remember which year he started doing so). You don't need special "microwave" oats. Ideally, the oats should be soaked in the cereal bowl with some milk the night before, but it wasn't essential. But then it was just a simple case of microwaving direct in the bowl and then adding some milk.

He's now a healthy 21 year old who nowadays is desperately trying to put on weight to help with his rugby I think his breakfast nowadays starts with a protein shake

If anyone wants something ironed here they need to do it themselves. If the don't iron their stuff I don't take it personally, it's not a reflection on me but on them. My husband washes all his shirts at the same time and then hangs them to dry so that he doesn't need to iron them.

I ended up just ironing the bits that would be seen.. Collars and cuffs 😂

Why did you have two children if you aren't going to take care of their needs?
Your husband can obviously do his own.

on the assumption your DH is an actual adult, I’d say he can do his own. Get the non iron ones for the kids and hang them up damp so any potential creases drop out.

I would either get your DH to do the ironing or teach your kids to do.
My DD is 9 nearly 10 and we've taught her how to use the iron, so she does her own school uniform (while supervised). Before that my DH and I would take it in turn as we also had work clothes to do. DH now wears a uniform that doesn't need ironing, so it's just uniform and the odd work shirt for me.

Get some lenor crease release! Best thing I’ve brought and never ironed since

Why assume that’s an option. Could be divorced. Widowed. Single by choice.

Reread in better light, my mistake sorry!

I have three children at school all wearing shirts - I buy the M&S non iron shirts, wash, hang up to dry on a hanger and they turn out perfect. No ironing required.

I wasn't my husbands shirts and dry them the same way, if he wants them ironed then he knows where the iron is 🥴

wash not wasn't 🤦‍♀️

The tumble dryer is your friend.
Yes, they don't look as crisp as ironed shirts. Avoid pure cotton, they look awful unless ironed. Polycotton is the way to go.
No, I don't care, and they don't either.

Make a shirt last for two days instead of a clean one daily, which would reduce the number of shirts in the wash by half. And get your husband to help out with the shirt ironing!

I rarely iron. I hate it. What I do, is make sure I get the shirts straight out of the machine once the wash is finished and hang them up to dry. Haven’t ironed any shirts in about a year!

Looking at the state of some of the kids and parents at the school gate lots of them don't iron.

It comes down to laziness. All this lifes to short to iron etc is just an excuse for being a lazy slob.

My kids went through the whole of a ho without ironing a shirt.

They always looked fine.

Shake straight from the machine abs hang up.

sigh... .I do work. PT Which is why I do 98% of domestic crap. including a shit load of ironing. I just wondered if it was time to teach the kids to do their own shirts, as I was taught as a similar age.

For the record DH's 18 hour days presently are nothing to do with mine, they'd be there if I worked FT, PT, or zero time. But there's nothing like mumsnet for trying to shame women and how they aportion their time when they know zero about a person's circumstances.

Again, thanks for all the constructive comments. I'm definitely spinning less and taking out the machine sooner.