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Should children be taught to wash and iron their own clothing?
Results so far:
| Yes | 88% | 518 votes | Total: 588 votes | |
| No | 12% | 70 votes |
Yes
by Patrick Sills
Created on: December 06, 2009 Last Updated: March 23, 2010
In regard to the question of whether or not children should be taught to wash their own clothing, the answer is clearly an absolute yes. Laundering is a very simple task that any able-bodied 12-year-old should be able to perform. Delegating specific chores to children instills valuable lessons in responsibility. In this day and age, both parents often work away from home and it is thus unrealistic as well as unfair for kids who have reached a certain level of maturity to expect Mom and Dad to do everything for them.
In addition, other chores for children should also be assigned. Some of these can include keeping their room tidy, helping with preparing meals, washing or putting dirty dishes into the dishwasher when finished, walking and feeding the dog (or any other pet), shoveling or snow blowing the driveway when applicable, and mowing the lawn. A conscientious parent would never dream of letting his or her child blow off homework, so why would the same parent not wish to embrace teaching other responsibilities to prepare them for what lies ahead out there in the real world?
However, when it comes to ironing clothes, who really does this anymore? Has anyone born after about 1975 even seen an ironing board outside of a museum? Permanent press fabrics are the industry standard today, and this has made ironing virtually obsolete. While some stuffy business attire still require dry-cleaning, which is somewhat similar to the archaic practice of ironing, this is done at a professional dry-cleaning facility. As for clothes that become a bit wrinkled despite being permanent press, all one needs to do is put them in the dryer for about 15-20 minutes, anyway. Problem solved. Moreover, ironing is dangerous. A person can easily get burned and it increases the risk of house fires.
Parents who are too laid-back to teactheir children how to wash their own clothes as well as perform other domestic tasks that need to be done are doing them a great disservice. One day, they will venture out on their own and not know how to perform these duties.This in turn increases the chances of them becoming lazy slobs who will wonder why they never get their security deposit back when the lease on their apartment is up.
Unless we hail from rich blood, learning not to be dependent on others in regard to basic household duties is an essential part of growing up.
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No
by Tricia Muller
Created on: December 05, 2009
Should children be taught to wash and iron their own clothing? This is like asking if children should be taught to clean the house. Why would a child need to know this? Isn't this a parents responsibility? I see so many children today that are not only responsible for keeping their own room clean and maybe one chore, but they also are responsible for the laundry, the dishes, emptying the garbage, starting dinner, and taking care of the family pets! What do their parents do? Pretty much nothing. Parents today seem to think that since they bring home a paycheck their children should be their maids.
While I agree that children need a chore, and cleaning their own room certainly should be all on them, why should a child be responsible for the housework? Between school, homework, chores and extracurricular activities when does a child get to be a child? It's true that a child needs to learn responsibility, but apparently, so do parents. Did you give birth just to have a slave in a few years? I understand that it is hard for a parent, or parents, to work full time, raise kids, and keep a clean home, but that doesn't change the fact that it IS an adults responsibility. People seem to lose site of the fact that children are not shorter adults. Why does a ten year old need to behave like an adult? Worse, why should a six year old?
Washing and ironing clothes is a job for an adult. At the least it is something that a child should not have to learn until they are in their mid-teens. At the point it is necessary for a child to start learning how to care for themselves as they will be an adult in a few short years. Parents need to remember that a teen is still a child, regardless of the fact that they think they know everything.
On a personal note, my children had nothing to do before the age of ten except pick up after themselves (toys, mostly) and help clean their rooms. At the age of ten they took on the responsibility of cleaning their rooms by themselves, putting away their own, already folded and ironed, laundry, and one chore. That chore was designated by their size and maturity level. My oldest daughter, who is now 21, is a responsible, hard working adult, who cherishes family values and believes people should be responsible for themselves and their own actions. I believe this is partly due to the fact that she was allowed to be a child while she was one, and expected to help out according to her level of maturity only.
Learn more about this author, Tricia Muller.
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