<p>Hard to believe that no one has commented on this story yet:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20071009_If_dorms_filthy__why_work__Just_dial_.html[/url]”>Hired scrubbers clean the college crowd's crud;
<p>Basically, cleaning services for college kids who don’t want to scrub their own toilets or fold their own underwear.</p>
<p>Thoughts? Me: I’m not paying for it.</p>
<p>EEWW. As a former hotel manager who work closely with housekeeping all I can say is I hope the people who work for those services glove up. I would double up on the gloves even.</p>
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<p>Yuk. Imagine the kinds of adults they will become. (Maybe one need only look at their parents I suppose.)</p>
<p>you beat me to it, JHS. And I thought I was spoiling my daughter when I caved to her request for a small, hand-held vacuum!</p>
<p>I read it this morning and laughed! Luckily my D knows what a vacuum cleaner is (she and her roommate own one as well as many cleaning products) and the room was spotless last week when we visited! Boys on the other hand…</p>
<p>From this article:“They’re hardworking students who have a job at night and are studying all day and don’t have time to do laundry.” </p>
<p>IMO, what a joke! No time to throw laundry into a machine, and fold!</p>
<p>northeastmom,
I wonder if my husband would buy that one…hmm. I am a hardworking person with a job at night (it’s called dinner, laundry, paying bills, etc.)</p>
<p>And you’re cooking, and paying more than college bills! When you do your laundy it is more than likely not just your own! Somehow, I have managed to do the laundry for 4 people for years!</p>
<p>Although my Ds all clean their own rooms and bathrooms, and have since h/s, I think some of you are being a little harsh about this. Why the negative connotations about what type of adults the kids who use the service become, or the type of adults their parents are? That’s pretty silly, in my opinion. Are the kids who live in dorms where there’s a cleaning staff who vacuum and clean bathrooms also suffering these negative connotations? Doesn’t appear so. In any case, although I wouldn’t choose to use this kind of service, I say bravo to the entrepreneurs who are providing it, and who are obviously very successful!</p>
<p>College kids are used to having their bathroom cleaned and their laundry done by others. Others may be mom or the cleaning lady. They take their expectations to college and do not necessarily change their behavior.
S1 moved to an apartment in his senior year. It was shared with 10 other students. We made the mistake of visiting. I spent the whole time trying to clean the bathroom.
S2 has dorm crew every once in a while. I have not dared ask what happens between those “while.” And no, I’m not paying for it.</p>
<p>Sorry alwaysamom. I stand by my SPOILED assessment.</p>
<p>Who goes through life thinking it’s OK to make a big, disgusting mess in your home and just hire someone else to clean up after you?</p>
<p>Marite - Who are these college kids who are used to not doing their own laundry?!</p>
<p>This conversation reminds me of an incident at my sons’ high school. Some (spoiled) kids decided a good senior prank would be to distribute tiny little sprinkle things and glitter all over the school. They then each gave the custodian $10 to clean it up. I was appalled by that. Many of my friends thought it was just fine. :(</p>
<p>Who are these kids? Mine? But they’ve been doing their own in college. And their bedsheets get washed every week. I’ve been appalled at the posts reporting that students do not wash their sheets from the beginning to the end of school. My H surprised his colleagues by saying our beds get made every day. Apparently, that’s not the norm in a lot of households. It is in ours. Every one has different standards.</p>
<p>Good luck to these young people when they get into the real world. Even attorneys and doctors have to do “grunt” work. Do you think that this kind of thing promotes the “entitled” attitude that many professors have to deal with?</p>
<p>Most of the attorneys and doctors I know do not clean their own bathrooms.</p>
<p>Maybe not, but they did have to do other menial tasks at their jobs. I have four attoneys and five MD’s in my family and they claim that they all learned their work ethic at home, helping out in the kitchen, laundry room and doing their share scrubbing toilets.
My sister-in-law, an MD tells all kinds of stories about the “entitled ones” who were given jobs as interns that make scrubbing toilets look like fun!</p>
<p>weenie, you didn’t just say they were spoiled, you said “yuk” and then went on to denigrate the individuals as well as their parents. That’s harsh criticism based on huge assumptions and not simply a case of thinking someone is ‘spoiled’. My guess is that the majority of customers of these services are not of the type where kids make a ‘big disgusting mess’ and expect someone else to clean it up. It’s a cleaning service, much like the thousands of cleaning services which are available to the general public, only with a different clientele. And my kids are with marite’s kids, they didn’t do their own laundry until they went away to college. That isn’t as unusual as you make it sound.</p>
<p>Whether or not kids do their own laundry or clean their own toilets, is not going to be a predictor, nor is it an indicator, of how well they will succeed when they ‘get out into the real world’.</p>
<p>DD lived in a dorm at NYU and the kitchen and bathroom were cleaned by staff once a week. She was the only one of three that cleaned anything in between. She is still good at keeping her apt clean but the laundry is picked up and delivered since it actually costs less than doing it herself in the laundromat.</p>
<p>Alwaysamom: “Whether or not kids do their own laundry or clean their own toilets, is not going to be a predictor, nor is it an indicator, of how well they will succeed when they ‘get out into the real world’.”
I’m glad that you are so sure. It’s not so much about what the tasks are, just the attitude that everyone can just clean up my mess.</p>
<p>The $20 cost for one of the services to do laundry once a week sounds steep. The article states these kids are so busy studying they have no time to do their laundry. The machines wash and dry the laundry, the kids just need to put the dirty clothes in. I can understand maybe not wanting to leave your clothes unattended but most laundromats or dorm laundry facilities have tables where you can sit and study while you wait. When my d came home last week I reminded her to bring dirty laundry home. She said, no, she likes doing it at school so she can sit and do work at the same time! She also has a shared bathroom in a suite style dorm so the school does not provide cleaning service - the kids have to clean the bathroom themselves. No complaints from her and her roommate and suite mates. I think it’s just a matter of what they were accustomed to before they arrived at college. But I do feel it’s a part of growing up for 18 + year old kids to be responsible enough to do their own laundry and clean up after themselves.</p>