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<p>(sigh) This still happens to me just about every weekend…;)</p>
<p>What are you meaning by saying laundry has to be separated by fabrics? Isn’t all clothing made of some variation of cotton?</p>
<p>BigG, if taken seriously, laundry is a form of art. There are colors to consider as well as different fabrics when doing the sorting. Not all clothing is cotton, and not all “cotton” is purely cotton. But for a college student, washing everything in one load is OK.</p>
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<p>HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Yeah, right! And that’s why students graduate with thousands in credit card debt (to say nothing of college debt) – their parents thought teaching them how to handle money (and credit) was “irrelevant.”</p>
<p>I don’t think these basic living skills are irrelevant at all. I think they should be taught long before a kid is 18 years old. </p>
<p>My son has been doing his own laundry since he was 12. He knows how to wash and change his sheets. He has a bank account with a debit card; no checks yet, but then, he’s 15 – checks can wait until he’s 16. He will not leave home without knowing how to make five complete and balanced dinners, bake cookies and a cake, and grocery shop for the ingredients. He knows to look for good deals when he shops. He’s gotten an allowance since he was about six, this to teach him how to handle money and budget his funds.</p>
<p>Along that same line (teaching them life skills), I also made sure he knew how to swim and how to ride a bike. I have adult friends who never learned to do either, which I think is a shame! Kids may play football or soccer when they are young, and might even do so into adulthood, but precious few will play such games when they are 40 or older. Swimming and biking are activities that can be enjoyed throughout one’s whole life.</p>
<p>OP, this is not meant as a slam, but if your D is truly as you call her the “Most Irresponsible Kid on the Face of the Earth”, you should probably start sooner rather than later teaching her a few practical lessons about taking care of herself when she’s away at school so that she can lose the aforementioned title. Academics and ECs may get in the way now, but by early summer there’s really no reason not to. I wish her good luck in the college selection process.</p>
<p>Owlice, I agree with you. Basic living and housekeeping skills are very important. You don’t do your kids (or their future roommates, coworkers, spouses, etc.) any favors by somehow looking down your nose at these less “lofty” tasks and teaching them that study and social skills are the only things they need to get them through the college experience successfully.</p>
<p>I think most colleges have laundry service, but here’s what I did when my kids wanted it: I gave them a lump sum for the year’s spending money. It was pretty generous, enough for average student spending plus laundry service, and spending decisions were left to them. None of the three elected to pay for laundry when it was their money.</p>
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<p>See, this is one reason I prefer men’s clothes. :)</p>
<p>I knew a few people whose parents were convinced that they wouldn’t be able to figure out how to do their own laundry at college. Their parents were wrong.</p>
<p>owlice,
we must be talking about different species.</p>
<p>S was taught “the basics” – how to do laundry, make a bed and survival cooking --back in middle school and early HS.</p>
<p>I wondered if he would “forget how” when college came around. Cooking became a plus when friends wanted to have parties at an upperclassman’s (or woman’s) apartment and when skiing “on the cheap” during breaks or on weekends [bulk pasta and sauted veggies vs. resort prices for food].</p>
<p>Laundry? As I understand it, he’d rather do laundry than spend more money for additional clothes since the money ear-marked for clothes can go to travel and/or ski and/or concerts.</p>
<p>Making the bed? He has a single this year and told me he wanted to set it up to entertain. When I asked, he said that he rarely used a top sheet freshman year, he just used a blanket. I reminded him of the duvet [not that he knew what it was called] on his bed at my house. Since his old room has been converted, I asked if he wanted it. He said yes. </p>
<p>He mentioned that several female friends had commented on “how nice his room looked.”</p>
<p>Teach them while you have them and they will remember when it is important to them.</p>
<p>All kids need to learn basic life skills and be able to take care of themselves before they leave home. Laundry is probably the easiest of them all.</p>
<p>I use to do almost everything for my kids. In my mind, it was my job and theirs was to go to school. When it came time to go to college I had to teach them the skills they should have already learned.</p>
<p>My son still will text me every now and then with a laundry question. This weekend it was, can corduroys be ironed! He irons his clothes, but his sister can’t/doesn’t. I also get a cooking or cleaning questions about once a month. It makes me feel useful that the kids come to me with these questions; of course, I still call my mom when I don’t know how to cook something as she is a wonderful cook!</p>
<p>Summer is plenty of time to teach your daughter what to do if she is willing.</p>
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<p>MiamiDAP, how so?</p>
<p>Our junior high requires kids to take a class called “Life Skills”. They cover washing and ironing clothes, sewing with a sewing machine, and cooking. It’s what we used to call “Home Economics”.</p>
<p>I would not put until summer what can be learned right now, slowly. Who knows what kids will be doing next summer? Mine spent most of it at a camp.</p>
<p>Laundry: Can be taught by observing (her) and commenting (you) a few times. No big deal.
Ditto ironing and looking at care labels.</p>
<p>More important is to make sure they know how to handle checking accounts, credit cards (saying No to tempting offers over the phone–S1 learned the hard way), paying bills on time to maintain good credit, having important numbers easily available for emergencies (and not depend on mom or dad who may not be available when needed).
For college students, toward the end of the school year, make sure to leave forwarding address at the local post office.</p>
<p>I remember the daughter of some very very rich parents who got to B school without knowing how to boil water. I am told that she is now a very successful businesswoman who never goes without two assistants to fetch and carry for her. I’ll bet she never has to boil her own water. I, not having rich parents to fall back on, learned how to cook in order to survive during summers.</p>
<p>“I just don’t understand why if some kids need work/study jobs, this is so wrong to ask for.”</p>
<p>If your daughter shares this opinion, I would suggest that you make sure she doesn’t voice it on campus. It comes off a little like sounding like “I’m rich, you aren’t, please wash and fold my clothes and provide me with clean sheets.” This will not go over well at all. That probably isn’t what you meant, but that’s what my kid’s ears would have heard.<br>
My older 2 started washing their own clothes in 4th and 7th grade. I was undergoing chemo and we offered them a choice - pick up more chores around the house or have Grandma move in for 6 months and one of you loses a bedroom. They were remarkably responsible after that.</p>
<p>My first college offered linen service - one flat sheet a week; the system being that you put the clean sheet as a top sheet week one, then put it (non-body contact side up) as the bottom sheet the second week. None of the girls in my sorority used it. We considered it really gross on many counts - especially the hotel like use of a flat sheet instead of a fitted one on the bottom. Besides, we wanted cool colors, not white! The quarter-eating machines in the basement were fine.</p>
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<p>Priority for work/study jobs is given to students on financial aid. Linen service is expensive and not necessarily that convenient! At Harvard, students have to bring their dirty laundry to some location and pick it up days later at that same location. It’s far easier going down to the basement and doing it oneself, getting back the laundry a few hours later. And far far cheaper. And really, how much time does it take to dump laundry into a washer, take it out, put it in a dryer and then take it out when it’s dried? In the meantime, one can do the assigned reading for the week.</p>
<p>This really smacks of a rich student’s whine–not one who needs to be on work/study.</p>
<p>Marite, that is what we call a wash and fold, you drop it and pick it up. </p>
<p>I meant why shouldnt students who need the money make some on this.</p>
<p>This thread hits home. I have tried to teach D how to do laundry properly, sorting and what not, but in addition to her habit of losing clothes out in the world, she also has poor timing and forgets to move her wet clothing into the dryer in a timely fashion, so her clothes wind up smelling like mildew.</p>
<p>She is careless with clothing. Most of her clothes come from Goodwill and WalMart because she loses them or they sit in the washer for days at a time, wet, and the mildew smell will not go away.</p>
<p>Her college does not have a laundry service.</p>
<p>LC, don’t worry. When she is on her own she will suddenly get more attentive. It will only take one time of coming back to change her clothes over to the dryer only to find someone has piled her sopping wet clothes in the floor so they couold get theirs in, to make the the light bulb in her head come on.</p>
<p>I lived in an all girl dorm with ten floors at a big state u. . Laundry rooms were on every other floor. That was a lot of girls with a lot of clothes to wash. I learned quickly that nobody was going to take care of my stuff but me and if I didn’t, I would find it on the floor.</p>
<p>kayf:</p>
<p>I understand perfectly what wash and fold means. And my point is that in order to avail oneself of this service, usually the student has to drop the laundry and pick it up: a far more inconvenient thing to do than doing the laundry oneself. Try it when it’s raining or snowing.</p>
<p>Sure, there are students who earn money from those who do not wish to do the laundry themselves. Was that really what you were asking? Or were you suggesting that your D is either incapable of figuring how to do laundry or too busy to do it? Because that sure is how I interpreted your post.</p>
<p>LC: I agree with Packmom. When mom is not there to put your clothes into the washer then from the washer to the dryer then fold them for you, you learn quickly not to forget to do so yourself.</p>
<p>In my freshman year, my neighbor asked if she could borrow my underwear as she had run out of clean underpants. I told her emphatically NO! She went and did her laundry.</p>