DD: Oh, do piss off.
I got my first job aged 15, started a week after my 16th birthday, and paid my mum £200 rent from my £550 take home. My mum had a lot of money at this point in time, it had nothing to do with money, it had to do with taking responsibility.
It taught me that rent was a financial responsibility that I always had to factor in. I couldn't party away £550 a month - which I very much WOULD have done.
Oh, and to the pp who hilariously said 'I should think you'd be grateful to be washing your children's clothes when they're home from uni' - that's how you get entitled brats, and kids who don't know how to survive on their own. My OH is 42 and because his mum never taught him how to do anything, still can't be trusted not to shrink a clothes wash.
My mum, however, had me hand washing my school jumper every Saturday from the age of 14, doing my own clothes washing at the age of 16, and on the few occasions when I was pre-14 and didn't take her seriously, and didn't remove all my clothes from my bedroom floor, I DID come home to find she'd chucked them all out of the window, just as she had promised. The humiliation of the neighbours seeing that meant I thought twice before not listening to her. Every Saturday, her, me and stepdad all cleaned the house from top to bottom, from the age of about 12. No excuses, everyone mucked in. During school holidays aged 14 and 15, I spent weeks going to work with her and doing a boring menial job at her work place whilst she was somewhere busy being important. It was absolutely, utterly exhausting (getting up at 5.30am! teenagers really do need more sleep) but I earned money and I learned the value of earning your own money.
Now I'm as neat as a shiny new pin and wouldn't dream of living with someone rent-free unless I was in real dire straights and they offered it.
I should think you'd be grateful to do your kid's washing. Christ. Anyone would think it's 1950.