<p>Have you considered having your child mail their laundry home for you to do?</p>
<p>We weren’t too good about teaching the kids the basic skills before they left for school. They didn’t want to hear about it and we didn’t want to expend the energy to make them listen. Nothing really awful has come out of our laziness, though. They learn.</p>
<p>Our son did complain recently that his two favorite sweaters (Christmas presents from us) are too small since they came out of the dryer…</p>
<p>But that means he’s doing his laundry, right?</p>
<p>They do learn and come to appreciate the luxories of life.</p>
<p>My S delighted that there is a laundry room in his new apartment, and doesn’t have to traipse thru the cold to a laundromat. He also appreciates new stove, as the stove in last apt. had major gas leak. Walls without cracks, clean carpets, WOW!! Did I mention this apt is smaller than my garage? S now cooks a little, even baked cookie dough.</p>
<p>CMomof2; I like your quote</p>
<p>Thanks, bookworm. It’s been around for a long time, and it seems very appropriate for this thread.</p>
<p>Mine are 21 and almost 19, and through learning to take care of themselves at college, it’s been very gratifying as a parent to watch them evolve into responsible adults (at least at times :)) through trial and error. You’re right that they do grow to appreciate the luxuries of life. D is studying in Sweden and has had her eyes opened to the frustrations of dealing with a true bureacracy halfway around the world from home, and S just loves to come home for the occasional steak dinner - something he’s NOT going to get at school!! By the way, he folds his clothes FAR nicer than I do mine!! ;)</p>
<p>Here’s a funny thing…my 22 year old just returned from traveling through Cambodia and Laos, including remote villages. I asked her how she did her laundry there (she went for three weeks with just a big backpack) and she said that they did the laundry for them at the guesthouses she was staying at. LOL. Typically she has to do her own laundry though. One summer when she was working in Paris, she had to walk quite a ways with her laundry to a laundromat. Where she lives now (apartment in Cambridge, MA for grad school), there is laundry in her apartment building.</p>
<p>northstarmom: My H’s mom attended Vassar in the 30’s, and it was standard operating procedure for students to mail home their dirty clothes for laundering. I don’t know if there were no laundry facilities or what the situation was, but I do know that she mailed her stuff home.</p>
<p>I spent 2 minutes showing my S how to do laundry last summer before he left for college. He washes his clothes twice a week, and kind of enjoys it. He is the odd type of boy that likes a tidy room and clean clothes.</p>
<p>“northstarmom: My H’s mom attended Vassar in the 30’s, and it was standard operating procedure for students to mail home their dirty clothes for laundering. I don’t know if there were no laundry facilities or what the situation was, but I do know that she mailed her stuff home.”</p>
<p>It was probably a lot more difficult to do laundry in college before there were washing machines.</p>
<p>NSM: U have a wicked sense of humor</p>
<p>Honestly, I would never imagine mailing laundry home. I do recall having sheets dry over shower rod and chairs, etc, cuz dryers never seemed to work</p>
<p>Mine also tried to talk me into paying for laundry service but I vetoed. The first few times that she came back home she brought home a big bag of laundry for us to do. After a few times, husband and I firmly suggested to tell her that she should do her laundry in college so she can bond with people in her dorm. She took the advice and has not brought home any laundryfor us to do.</p>
<p>owlice,
I cannot imagine laundry task being challenging to any college kid. If it is, then I would be really worrying about the rest of their life at college.</p>
<p>Laundry is for amateurs, what they really need to learn is how to fold a T-shirt standing up! I taught my son how to do this when he was 15. I overheard him bragging to his friends about how good he was at this. Made this mother glow with pride. (My husband still cannot fold a shirt without first putting it down on a table. He hasn’t figured out how to hang pants either.)</p>
<p>Google Origami T-shirt folding (you need a flat surface to do it, though).</p>
<p>Mailing laundry home in the 30’s and 40’s was quite common. ThHe postal costs must have been quite a bit less than what it would have cost to have someone do the laundry. </p>
<p>As noted…it’s unlikely the school dorms had “do it yourself” laundry facilities at that time.</p>
<p>Of course I did not go to school in the 40’s (not even born yet :)), but I do remember doing a lot of handwash because our washers were constantly out of order! Rommmate and I had a “flag day” about once a week - the rope across our room was decorated with freshly handwashed colorful undies and socks. If I tried to mail something home to be laundered, I think my mom would have killed me!</p>
<p>There are actually some kids who really have a tough time with laundry. mom60 post 10…I get it, including the toothbrushing reference. It may be extreme over the top laziness—you have to have a kid like this to appreciate it. </p>
<p>DS is 3 yrs out of college, has a laundry service in NYC that does every last sock. Of course he knows how to do it—he just doesn’t. He paid classmates in college to do his (not often), and traded a few homeworks for laundry (I’m not proud of that). mom60 is your kid a CS major like mine? He’s actually tall, handsome and outgoing, lives with a beautiful girl…we don’t quite get it. </p>
<p>btw I remember my mother sewing name tags into my underwear as instructed for college. We had pick up and delivery service. This was at a school that was all male, it went coed my third year—I guess they figured a school full of guys is clueless when it comes to laundry.</p>
<p>
Nothing precludes an enterprising kid from making extra on their own. My daughter had other kids paying her cash to clean their dorm rooms for them – she thought they were spoiled rich kids if they couldn’t pick up after themselves, but it was an easy way for her to make extra when needed. So I’m sure if your daughter has money to spare, she probably can find some kid on her hall who needs extra who will do her laundry for her, for a price. </p>
<p>As to work-study – many students prefer to avoid menial jobs. My d. might be willing to clean somebody’s dorm room for $40, but for work-study rates she has preferred taking jobs in various college departments where she has worked to help profs with research. After all, she is in college to get an education. </p>
<p>As to this thread title:
… Is it possible that this kid is the offspring of the most irresponsible parent on the face on the earth? No offense intended, but you will reap what you sow. If you see your kid as “irresponsible” … that is probably what you will get. Part of parental responsibility is to help your child develop the life skills you want to see. </p>
<p>I think in this case you should reconsider your own attitude. The truth is that doing laundry in college is ultimately your daughter’s problem - she’ll figure it out one way or another. It would be nice if as a parent you can give helpful advice – for example, my daughter ruined a gorgeous sweater she had brought back from Russia because she didn’t realize that wool knits should be hand washed. (It shrunk!) I wish that somewhere along the line I had remembered her the lesson in about washing sweaters and delicates in the sink in Woolite that that my mom once gave me… but that’s an example of the “another” way of learning.</p>
<p>To the OP: Did your daughter learn how to operate a careening, multi-ton machine with four wheels and many knobs at age 16? If the answer is yes, I guarantee she can learn how to drive a washer and dryer!</p>
<p>This thread reminds me of my freshman year roommate. Her dad was a traveling salesman whose territory included the college. He’d arrange his route so that he would swing by every week or so to pick up a load of her dirty laundry and deliver a clean one. I’ve never forgotten her mom’s rationale: “I didn’t send my daughter to college to do laundry.”</p>
<p>When my S was a counselor at a summer camp, he did his own laundry.</p>
<p>I got a frantic call because he had run a load of laundry with a pen in the pocket and it leaked and it had gone thru the dryer and there was dried ink stains on his clothes. </p>
<p>Best laundry lesson, EMPTY your pockets!</p>
<p>I like the part of self-taught laundry where your son learns how to turn all his underwear pink.</p>