<p>“I meant why shouldnt students who need the money make some on this.”</p>
<p>Does your daughter need more financial help than the school is able to provide, or do you think poorer kids should be washing your kid’s clothes?</p>
<p>I’d never done a load of laundry before I moved into my dorm freshman year. Believe me, I learned how, and it involved me asking one of my new friends in the dorm, who’d been doing hers for years.</p>
<p>You have to remember that most college laundry facilities have multiple machines in the dorms, so it can actually be more efficient and quicker to do laundry at school. If you do your laundry at a time that is not in high demand, you can usually do all your loads at once, so your trips up and down are limited. It takes the same amount of time to do four loads as one because they’re all going at the same time.</p>
<p>Honestly, if she makes mistakes (doesn’t pay attention to care labels, etc.), she will learn a valuable lesson, and it probably won’t happen again. My biggest pet peeve these days, though, is how much new clothes seem to bleed in the wash, so I have warned my kids about that, because with that situation, you’re not just ruining one piece of clothing that you should have handled differently, but usually a whole load if the bleed is bad.</p>
<p>Well… if she can’t figure something out and she’s in dire need, she’ll google it!</p>
<p>Token Generation “Y” poster says: I learned how to cook from Alton Brown, I learned how to train my dog from Cesar Milan, and I learned how to buy my first house from HGTV. In this day and age, if I’m a college kid on the second side of her last pair of underwear and I don’t know how to do laundry, I’m going to say so on my Facebook status, and my friends will proceed to 1) mock and then 2) help me out.</p>
<p>My little brother had no idea how to clean or cook or do laundry when he left home. He’s in his first year of grad school now. He cleans his kitchen and bathroom with bleach and CLR on a regular basis, presses his own shirts, and when I had a lousy day a couple of weeks ago, marinated and cooked (with great culinary panache) a beautiful flank steak that he picked up on sale. </p>
<p>Somehow, we all turn out okay! I think you’ll be surprised at how we young 'uns whip ourselves into shape when the need arises. Your daughter may not have a laundry service at hand, but she WILL have a <em>community</em> to help her out-- and they’ll teach her the things she needs to learn.</p>
<p>I’m beginning to think the problem is not the kid here, but the parent.</p>
<p>aibarr I never feared for your generation being able to step up to the plate and do what was needed.
My question had to do with the OP seeming to think that her kid, having been sheltered from that terrible chore known as laundry, would be at a life-long disadvantage. It was her “fault”, but the college should have used her tuition dollars and had work-study kids wash her kid’s undies…</p>
<p>You’re kidding, right about looking for wash and fold services for her?
I taught both of my sons how to do their laundry when they were 10. They were thrilled (really!) to be considered old enough to use such an impressive machine.
From that point on, they were responsible for their own laundry. Each tried – once – to wash their white undies with red things. They learned quickly not to do that.
They also quickly learned to keep up with the laundry. I remember one kid telling me at 6 a.m. that he didn’t have clean underwear to wear to school. </p>
<p>I murmured sympathetically, and that’s all I did. After that, he learned how to have clean clothes in time for school.</p>
<p>I also didn’t micromanage them about their laundry. Yes, their methods differed from mine, but I didn’t worry about it.</p>
<p>I am not sure if I undertand the OP correctly, did he/she suggest that perhaps the kids on work/study could wash her childs laundry? OP please clarify this for me. Thank you.</p>
<p>I thought when I was in college work/study kids ran student laundry services, student snacks, lots of things like that. Maybe my memory fails me.</p>
<p>Of all the colleges my family has attended, there was no such thing as a campus run laundry service. I believe when S1 went to college 4 years ago, we got some sort of adverstisment about an off campus laundry offering their serivces for a ridiculous amt. of money per week. No thanks. </p>
<p>S2’s university has washers/dryers in the dorms for use at no charge. Why would anyone pay?</p>
<p>Harvard Student Agencies (not the Work/Study Office) offer different plans for wash and fold services. For a normal load (2 drop-offs per week), the cost is #350. For one drop-off per week, it’s $190. I can think of lots of things my S would prefer to use that money for.</p>
<p>“I thought when I was in college work/study kids ran student laundry services”</p>
<p>Anything is possible, but that didn’t happen at my college, and didn’t happen at any college I’m familiar with.</p>
<p>marite - How many weeks is that $190 good for? Just curious…</p>
<p>I worked in the cafeteria as a student–but it was not work/study. It was just a plan old job open to anyone who wanted that level of abuse because they needed the money, regardless of financial aid. I very much doubt that the gov is going to give money to students to wash dishes or do laundry for others. W/s jobs tend to be a bit cleaner.</p>
<p>(what do I mean by abuse? well, for instance, a tray covered with honey, on which glasses with water in them were then stuck, upside down.)</p>
<p>Neither college i attended offered laundry service, nor have any my kids went to. I sure don’t see how your title about an irresponsible kid leads to the subject of you trying to find her maid service. But everyone has a different approach, i guess.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Perhaps effect and cause?</p>
<p>Some of these posts reminded me of other fun memories. One boy in my freshman dorm said that one pair of underwear was good for 4 uses “front ways, backwards, inside out front, inside out back”. I don’t think he really did that . I did know a girl who wore no underwear at all (how uncomfortable…) Although this is now an A list celebrity trait, right? After freshman year, I always did laundry after midnight. I usually was there alone, and could also use a lot of machines at once… time efficiency. This also worked well in my NYC apt building.</p>
<p>Woody:
The laundry plan seems to come to $11.50 per week. </p>
<p>[HSA</a> Cleaners - Academic Year Service - Laundry, Linen, Shirt, and Dry Cleaning Plans](<a href=“http://www.harvardstudentagencies.com/cleaners/academic/default.asp]HSA”>http://www.harvardstudentagencies.com/cleaners/academic/default.asp)</p>
<p>I once heard of a student who did not do his laundry. Whenever he ran out of clean clothes he bought new ones. One night, there was a fire alarm. When the proctor (Harvard for RA) failed to get him out of his room, he opened the door and was assailed by the stench of unwashed clothes (not surprisingly, the student was not sleeping in his room).
I did hear of a rich student whose parents sent a maid to college with him (this being Harvard); and of another whose parents bought her a condo because she did not get along with her roommates.</p>
<p>Dad – if you read my first post, I did admit to culpability in this. </p>
<p>Marite, I have heard of parents buying condos for kids for a number of reasons.</p>
<p>Yes, so have I. This reason was from the horse’s mouth. Condos around Harvard Square, where this one is located would be about $500k at least.</p>
<p>I keep reading this thread, shaking my head, and think of the saying “Prepare your child for the path, not the path for your child.”</p>
<p>Kayf…</p>
<p>In my opinion, going to college is about much more than getting academic education. It is a transition time to growing up and taking on adult responsibilities. An old time prolific member of CC who no longer posts here, Jamimom, used to call college a “Disney half way house.” 
</p>
<p>When my kids were growing up at home, I did their laundry (and cooked for them, etc.) Before they went to college, I did teach them about laundry, balancing checkbooks, some cooking, etc. (one of my kids had to do laundry in a summer program) I didn’t mind doing for them growing up but in college, they had to take on these responsibilities. College is the time to take that on. And you can teach them the basics before they go and it will help. What they do when they get there is up to them. Some will be more responsible than others and often necessity will come into play and they will learn how (they may really need clean underwear!!). My oldest graduated college last spring and is now in grad school and my youngest is a senior in college. Both are girls. One is much neater than the other. But both go food shopping and can cook (one a bit better than the other…she is also older) and both have to do their own laundry (I think they wait til it piles up as their schedules at college are intense). But they deal with their own money, travel arrangements, laundry, food shopping (not on meal plans) and so forth. They have to. That is what the college years are partly about. Mom may have done it prior to college but now they have to. They learn. You can teach your D how to do some of these things before she goes away. But to expect a laundry service (even if one is offered…I don’t think most colleges offer this) is a disservice to your D in learning to become an adult. The college years are a great time to learn to take on responsibilities. Then, when they graduate college (or after grad school), they will have to deal with EVERYTHING and thus, college is a “halfway” experience to taking on certain responsibilities before even larger ones come into play. </p>
<p>I can understand if your D doesn’t know how to do these things yet or that you do them for her but I truly believe you are making mistake to want that to continue into college (or to have others do these things for her there). It is a time for her to start taking on adult responsibilities when she leaves home. It is a step by step process and it has to start somewhere and not wait until college graduation. My younger D is graduating college at age 20 this May and will have to support herself and deal with everything on her own. I feel she will be ready as she has done a bunch of it in incremental steps during college and working in summers and so forth. That kid of mine happens to not make her bed and her room is well, a mess, but my other D does make her bed and her room is totally organized. So, some of it is personality…they both have the same mom who prepared them in the same way!</p>
<p>By the way, you may want to tell your D that I met my husband doing the laundry at the beginning of my freshman year of college. (though that was one of the last times I’ve seen him do it…LOL)</p>