October 22, 2007

Doing laundry....when do you hand it over?

It seems that I spend a lot of time doing laundry. There are always daily things that need to be cleaned and there are just 2 of us living in my house. At what age do you have your kids wash their own clothes? I know, if it was up to my son, he would go to school in dirty clothes. Do I leave it up to him to wash his own stuff or do I continue to heed to the mother instinct and keep my son in clean clothes? One argument I have as far as continuing to wash is that if there are stains on his clothes, he wont think to look and get the stains out. He will wash them, dry them, and then the stain is set for life. I don't like seeing my son in stained clothes even if it doesn't bother him a bit. Funny, at 16, you'd think he would be a little more self conscience of what he wears but he remains unfazed. I think, because of the ADHD, he is a little more immature in a lot of ways for someone his age. I want to teach him responsibility but I'm not sure if this is a battle or task worth taking on. I think I taught my older son at about age 16 but its because he went thru twice the laundry, maybe 3 times the laundry, that a normal person would. He cared about what his clothes looked like unlike his brother. My DBF thinks Brad should be doing his own laundry. Any thoughts??

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I think if your son was a daughter, you could expect that but there is for sure a double standard in this department. I think that men in general don't do laundry.

♥.Trish.♥ Drumboys said...

that is a tough one - you could get him to split the task - you wash/do laundry he hangs washing up /brings it in and both fold etc.
That's what we do with our 14yr old.
My husband does do the laundry but not the way I like it ... he hee I tick him off when I tick him off for doing it wrong.

Jackie said...

Does he like to wear nice clothes? A peer pressure kind of thing. If so, then let him know he's responsible for his clothes. It's hard sometimes.... maybe you can suggest you'll dry if he washes? :)

Bud Weiser, WTIT said...

First of all, forget what your DBF says. It is to tell someone else how to raise their kids. Don't get me wrong, it is a reasonable age to get him started. Since DBF's can have their own agendas...

mother in israel said...

My teenage boys have been doing their laundry for three years (they are now 16 and 17). Can you do it with him the first few times, showing him how to get out stains?