Ironing with a young baby / toddler… how?

[Am99]

How does one find the time to iron with a young baby?! As he’s getting older (6 months) I’m finding I have more time to do stuff - cook more elaborately, clean more, but ironing is still a no go because 1. He’s starting to move now and so it’s a real hazard. 2. It is more effort than just loading the dishwasher, hoovering , mopping the floor? 3. I obviously can’t baby wear when ironing.

thankfully we don’t wear many clothes that require ironing often, but I’m sure my mother and grandmother managed to iron and I’m feeling a bit of a failure because of it…. Our baby cosleeps so about 50% time when I leave him for a nap he wakes up so I can’t even do it in nap time.

its a non-issue as like I say, unless we have an event it’s not a big deal to have ironed clothes but just wondering if anyone had any tips?

I can only imagine it’s gonna get more tricky when he starts toddling

I don't even own an iron.

Get your husband to do it?

If you feel a failure in life because you’re not doing enough ironing I think you should take a long hard look at your life. And maybe go back to work. You need some focus and perspective.

I dont own an iron. So not an issue.

Itoning service for essential items?

When they are asleep just do the essentials or send it out to someone

One of mine as a toddler ran the length of the room and put his hand on the sole plate! Just not worth the risk.

I would do a weeks ironing for n a Sunday evening watching heart beat and London burning

rarely iron now and my DDs never iron

I would just completely stop doing it it's not necessary in 2026

I set the playpen up so I was standing near them and could continue to chat/ineract while they play, move about etc. Dd2 was born in dd1's reception year so always had uniforms that obviously needed doing plus dh's work shirts. I've always ironed most clothes tbh, I think i'm not good at drying them so that they come out unwrinkled!

In your opinion

My opinion too. I don't know anyone who irons.

Mine are 5, 3 and 1. Baby co-sleeps but I can leave him when he’s gone down to sleep until we go to bed.

Despite what everyone’s saying on this thread, I still iron most stuff. I just prefer things to be ironed and I don’t really mind ironing. I mainly do it one evening a week after the kids have gone to bed, and listen to a podcast at the same time.

You could abandon the ironing if you don’t like it. Or your husband could do it, or you could iron for half an hour whilst he looks after the baby?

I just don’t iron. If my DH needs his clothes ironed he does it himself in the evening

I love ironing (odd. I know) so I used to use his nap time to do it. Either that or they would go in high chair and I’d put something on the tv that he would enjoy. But if you’re struggling just wear creased clothes as it’s not the be all and end all. Don’t get yourself in knots as it’s really just not worth it.

I don't iron. Simple as that.

Apart from that it isn't imposible to do while children are asleep it playing.

Playpen is brilliant for this. You can be in the same room and talk to baby/keep them company but do your ironing safely.

(PS I'm another weirdo that (a) likes ironing - I love the smell of ironing, and there is something satisfying about it - and (b) wearing ironed clothes or getting into ironed sheets!!)

I used a playpen from before they could crawl so it wasn't suddenly introduced when they started moving. In fact Ds1 aged 3 would ask to get in it with his baby brother which massively helped contain Ds2.

These days Dh doesn't need a shirt and tie attire for work anymore and I don't really need to iron anything of mine. My friend irons everything including tea towels. I get no pleasure from ironing.

Stop wearing linen clothes then you won’t need to iron them. Most clothes these days are made in easy care fabrics for this reason. I think viscose crinkle trousers and double cloth dresses would be a good non iron alternative for holiday clothes.

This is like the Christmas card argument. No one sends them anymore. Blatantly that’s not true, otherwise they wouldn’t still be on sale. There may be fewer sent, but they are still a thing. Same with ironing. You can still buy irons in loads of places and loads of people still iron. Just because you don’t doesn’t mean it’s extinct. You do you.

Ironing fan here- I really enjoy it.
And some things really do need an iron!
I used to wait until kids were in bed.

Who says on their deathbed, I wished I had ironed more shirts?

Is that because everyone you know looks crumpled or you've done some weird kind of survey

I know 100s of people, there's no way I could ever know a specific thing about them all, how does that work?

OP I used to iron during nap times with my first child and in the evening when I had more than one.

People on mumsnet are really odd about ironing, I can't understand why not ironing is seen to be the superior position. It literally has no effect on anyone else, it's not done in public, it's almost silent, can be done while watching TV, listening to music etc. Why do the non ironers look down on the ironers?

Well, I can't speak for anyone else - but I don't "look down" on people who iron, I just see it as a total waste of time and don't understand why people complain about it when they could quite easily just...stop.

The solution is not to do it!

When my children were small we paid for work shorts to be ironed. I was too tired and it was 100% worth the money

Don't iron! I literally only iron if we're going to a funeral or when I'm sewing but hobbies don't count!

Fold carefully and let a warm body remove the creases.

Side tracking completely..but I’m amazed at the number of non-ironed! Do you not look wrinkled? I can’t imagine not ironing the school and work shirts and trousers. One of life’s small pleasures in freshly ironed bed linen.

Well, I don't wear "work clothes" - my job is a dog walker so I just wear leggings and a t-shirt most days, plus a hoody in winter. I'm covered in mud, hair and slobber after the first 10 minutes so I doubt anyone would notice whether I was "wrinkled".

Similarly, DH is in the trades and comes home covered in paint, plaster, cement and god knows what else. Ironing for either of us would just be utterly pointless.