Not ironing your child's clothes is a sign of neglect

[Caligula]

Give me strength. My mother is here. The title is just one of her gems of wisdom. I've ended up having a "discussion" with her which basically consisted of her going through all the people she knows - au-pairs, nannies, childminders, neighbours, Auntie Bridget, Auntie Kathleen, Cousin Annie, Mrs Clark up the road, Mrs Lewis down the road, etc. etc. who all say you can tell a child is neglected by the wrinkles in their clothes, while I was reduced to saying "yeah but am I bovvered though?" "look at my face, does it look bovvered?" through this catalogue of gurus who believe that ironing = good childcare.

Roll on later on, when I'm driving her home!!!

and this is why my MIL is my ironing fairy.

actually I myself am rather too anal with regards to ironing and then matching clothes (I put them away in 'outfits' so there is no excuse for my DH not to dress his children properly and nicely).

BUT

Should my MIL make comment's like that then I am afraid that NO ironing would ever be done in a form of protest.

.

life is too short to iron childrens clothes

..but ironing is just sooooo boring. I really cannot be bothered. I am the local HV too - my son is neglected - and so are half the children on my caseload in that case..

ironing in my house is a fantastic break....

I disappear to our bedroom with the latest box set of CSI/ER/TRU/X-FILES and stand and iron for HOURS, and then match socks etc. (I do have 5 so one weeks ironing can take at least two episodes, if not 3!) And the disappearing part is because it is dreadfully dangerous to iron with the kiddies around (and in fact, that IS one thing I am concerned about after accidentaly burning my then 5yr old DD1 while ironing name tapes into school clothes [not with her in them I hasten to add...])

My DH also realises tho that ironing for me is like a bath and glass of wine for other parents. put simply, i enjoy it.....would even happily swap for anyone who would clean for me/clean my oven for me/do anything for me I hate (like go dentist!!!!

aragon, my mother would find you a sadly inadequate HV! ("one of these young ones with silly modrern ideas, they're not like the old ones")

I have to say caligula "Oh good" .

My gran used to walk down the street and stage whisper to us kids "eee, you can tell that woman over there hasn?t ironed her knickers - cheap tart!!"
Will never ever forget the mixed emotions of sheer embarrassment and giggling that a grown up could be so rude! All about priorities and personal standards (hang ups!). Blah blah blah.
My nasty sister (not to be confused with my nice one!) often hisses and tuts when she sees my kids looking less than perfect (they start off ok but kids deteriorate into sticky mucky things so easily in one car journey). And produces an effectual white hanky. She doesn?t own wet wipes. Then again, she doesn?t have any kids as it doesn?t fit into her lifestyle....

meant ineffectual white hanky - one that your mum would spit into to clean your face before wet wipes came along..

ah no there is where I would fall short....

if there are no babywipes handy then I lick my fingers and clean the child (only round the face, just before school, due to lack of cleaning off their breakfast tho....not anywhere else)I don't own any hankies!!

pml. I felt the need to comment on my boys' dishevelled clothing when I visited my aunt on Sunday. She wasn't bothered, but we both smirked cos we knew my mother (who's been dead for nearly 8 years) would have been completely unimpressed, and she'd have felt the need to politely have a go about it.

Well obviously Caligula didn't you realise that. Creasy clothing is the thin end of the wedge don't you know.

I loathe ironing and will only do it if something looks like it's been screwed into a tiny ball and left for about a year.

She sounds like a prize pain in the arse to me

get the iron out you lazy arse

more neglectful to spend hours when you could be playing with your child to stand there ironing tiny peices which look no different aftr they have been ironed
School uniform gets ironed
Anything thst is linen mix gets ironed
Thats it.

My mother didn't teach me to iron. She felt I would have better things to do with my time.

She was right.

when mine were small little kilts were the thing then and I lovingly ironed every pleat into them. I used to look down my nose and unironed kilts

am 100% with piffle here (as a change from the 'devil and the deep blue marg' thread)

what's ironing?

beef....snap here.....my kiddies school skirts still look as new as they first were with pleats obsessivly ironed in, and one of the skirts has now done all three girlies

If I did iron everything I would be closer to neglecting them as I would spend much less time with them.

In our house all that gets ironed is dps summer shirts & my best skirt. Everything else is carefully selected at the shop so as not to need ironing.

I don't neglect mine while ironing.....DH has them.

I iron on a sunday while he cooks the roast....fab system that works well for us.

MIL does our ironing if I am ill, as DH isn't the best ironer, and disagrees with ironing in front of the kiddies!

i cant put my dds clothes on her without ironing them 1st, i hate creased clothes, her clothes are so small they dont take long to iron anyway, her dad on the other hand, would def put her clothes on without ironing them!

hey psycho - that's what we used to do when the kids were at home - dh cooked sunday lunch, I ironed

If I have more than a couple of items though I actually send it to the MIL...

...but she does run an ironing service