Teens doing laundry?

[poiuy]

Does anyone agree with this? Get the sense that I do too much and need to prepare my three for independent living. Or should mums do it?

I just find it easier to do the family's wash en masse.

If I am doing a white wash, everyone's shirts go in, if I am doing a blue wash everyone's jeans go in.

I can't see how one person could generate enough to warrant multiple loads so clothes would just get ruined (all grey or pink probably!) so I would end up having to replace everything, or buying more clothes for everyone so they didn't have to wash so often.

They should do their own laundry, most machines have a half wash setting but if they change their clothes every day it doesn't take long to build up a wash.

Depends on age, I was expected to do mine when I started a part time job at 16. I also had to cook dinner once a week. (As well as basic chores like running the hoover round and the odd bit of dusting, nothing too dramatic.) Bloody hated it at the time, but as an adult I really appreciate that I was forced to do these things. I really really think it’s helped me.

I prefer to do all the familys washing so full loads get put on rather than just a couple of things as machine doesn't have half load option. My Sd will wash her clothes herself if she needs something quickly or going to her dad and she mixes all colours which makes my teeth itch but its her clothes so don't say anything. I also try not to use tumble dryer much and she will put her stuff in it and sometimes put stuff from washing machine in it if she wants to wash stuff which again irritates a bit but she is just trying to help so don't say anything.
All the teens can use the machine and eldest is just back from uni where he was perfectly capable of doing his own washing. I just prefer to do it.

We brought this in at sixth form, they need to start taking responsibility. That said I will ask if they have any whites as we can barely fill the machine from 3 peoples washing

My 3 all partiticapte in all household chores.
Our washing isn't separated by person but by colour. 1 load a day.

As a lone parent I need them to help if I spend most of my evenings ferrying them to after school clubs. So I can be ferrying one of them another will be doing a laundry shuffle. Each of them is expected to iron their school shirts for the week.

They are all expected to chip in with food prep, including the meal planning and shopping stage, putting shop away, cooking, and cleaning up after meals.

They have their individual chores they are responsible for too, like the bins, emptying dw etc.

All of them can cook, yesterday my 11yr did a roast all on her own, although she checked with me verbally re timings etc.

They also help with DIY, 14yr old recently learned how to use a drill to put a curtain rail up.

It's just not possible for one person to work full time, ferry every evening and do all the household chores so they have to pull their weight. I honestly believe a large part of self esteem comes from being able to do this stuff. Think of toddlers and their determination to do stuff on their own even though you want to help/hurry them along.

Start gradually and build it up. They will thank you in the long run. Dont use it as a stick to best them with, more being part of a team and if they help with x then you will have time to do y with them. Don't expect it to be perfect either, good enough is good enough.

They should know how to and put a load on from time to time, but don't need to be weighed down by chores now. I use the times when they want something washed for the next day to talk them through how to do it (again).

I just showed DS1 how to do it before he left for University. He seems to have survived. It's hardly rocket science and every machine is different anyway.

I don't see the point of making them do their own laundry as I might as well wash everyone's stuff at once.

Ds is just 18 and has been doing his own laundry for the last year or so. He'll have to do it when he goes to uni so needs to get used to it.

Mine have done their own from age 12. My machine very rarely runs half full. They learn very quickly not to bother telling me they have no clean xyz.

I started it mostly because of the habit of putting clean clothes through tge laundry because it was easier for them than putting them away.

I a mum not a skivy. My DH does his own as well. I hope to god my girls meet men who don't think it is the wife/mothers job to do laundry.

I started it mostly because of the habit of putting clean clothes through tge laundry because it was easier for them than putting them away yep,me too !

I do all the washing, but both dcs know how to do it. Ds is now at university but when home both he and dd help with cooking, cleaning etc. They are both aware the cleaning is not a spectator sport.
Before ds left he spent a lot of time cooking and adapting recipes ready for university.
I found that moving house last year was the best training for both of them - clearing out, cleaning, trips to IKEA it was a fun summer holiday!

I hope to god my children don't meet partners who think that doing things for other people makes them a "skivvy".

I always did the main clothes washing but as teens mine were expected to change/wash their own towels and bedding. I am not sure popping some clothes in the washing machine makes me a skivvy!

Mine were also well able to clean a house and they have since told me they are entirely grateful for ensuring they had these skills. It would seem many depart for uni with no household skills!

Ds12 has been doing his own washing for a year or so.
We have a rota for washing so there's never half loads. Ds has Wednesday and Friday, Dd has Tuesdays and Thursdays and then mine and DH on the other days.
This works well for us.

They should do their own laundry, most machines have a half wash setting

Why? Why should they? It makes no sense.

3 x teens, 2 x adults and you think we should all be doing separate loads

hope to god my children don't meet partners who think that doing things for other people makes them a "skivvy".

This ^

I never know what goes through people's heads on Mumsnet.

Ours gets put into a communal laundry system so no baskets in their rooms, but they have learnt from a young age to separate whites, blacks, darks and lights as each colour has it's own basket.

I have a laundry schedule so certain loads get done on certain days and this is posted up in the utility and above the laundry tubs.

Both teen DS's strip their beds and put that into the wash, know how much powder to add etc, know what setting it goes on, it is tumbled whilst they are in school and they come home and put it back on their beds.

But yes, if needed they can grab the laundry basket for that day and put it in the machine and put it on. They do loads though, table setting, bins emptied and out, again set days and each child is responsible for either the kitchen bin or recycling. They have a set day to check the contents of their bathroom to see if they need toilet roll/shampoo etc and replenish then. They cook, hoover, mop, clean windows etc make shopping lists and meal plan with help.

It is getting them into a routine/habit of doing stuff.

Did can put on a wash and knows how to, but it makes no sense to us to separate washing out. We just do the family walk together, at a eeekend.

I'm not about to start wasting electricity doing half washes, etc.

When I grew up, same for dh, it was the same. We both grew up perfectly able to do laundry independently when we left home. It's hardly difficult after all.

I don't divide the wash by people creating it, that's sound a bit to silly for me.

DD learned how to do it when I had a knee operation when she was 10 and couldn't bring the loads down/bend to get it inside the machine/take it out etc. She knows that colours need to be separated and that her riding clothes need a different setting than a woolly jumper.

That's enough in my opinion. She sorts out all her clean clothes herself, I just dump a basket full in her room.

I think they should taught basic chores and should chip in as and when it's needed. So washing needs done, help regardless of whose it is. Lounge needs hoovering, they should help. Dishes need doing, get stuck in.
Rather than wash 1 plate, wash your own clothes, only hoover your own room etc.

When mine were teens if they wanted something washing they would gather up enough from the laundry bins for a half/full load. As they became older teens if I was at work and they were at home they would bung a load on if the laundry bin was getting full.

I don't divide the wash by people creating it, that's sound a bit to silly for me why?

Even I don't do laundry, my DH does it all! When DDs were younger, the rule was if it's not in the laundry basket it doesn't get washed. We only washed at the weekend. My DH has never worked Friday afternoons, so when he gets in at lunch, he showers then puts all his work clothes on to wash. Next went the uniforms ( when they were young enough), then whites then colours. Usually 4 loads unless washing bedding. By bed time all washing was done. Half of it dried. My job ( and DDs when younger) is to sort it out from the drier / washing line, into different people's non ironing, and one ironing pile. DH spends Sunday morning doing the ironing an di put away everything. When DDs were at home they put away their own stuff.

Why is it silly? To me it is silly to mix it. We each have our own laundry bin. It goes into the wash, then the dryer then back to the relevant bedroom. No sorting is required.

It is not the act of throwing clothes in a machine that is hard. It is having then to remember what can be tumbled and what can't, which t-shirts belong to whom (we are all about the same size) and making sure it is all folded and put away. It's not like plates and cutlery which are communal. If everyone was happy to share all clothes I'd do their laundry, but as long as they complain if their t-shirt is in their sisters wardrobe they can do their own laundry.

Frenchfancy - but 5 white shirts are not a full load. If I collect than I also have a certain amount of white tops from DH and me.

Similar dark. DD has maybe one pair of jeans and 6 pair of socks on Saturday night.

That's a waste of resources and money.