by Lisa H Warren

Created on: March 26, 2008

When my son was in fifth grade he developed a love for a morning routine, which included ironing the pair of pants and shirt he would wear to school that day. He had reached a stage where he seemed to enjoy taking responsibility for himself, and he particularly loved getting up very early in order to be able to have an organized morning.

If he had asked me to iron his shirts I would have been glad to do it, but he never asked. He would eat a healthy breakfast, iron his shirt and pants, take a shower, and do a skin-care routine on his face (because he was worried about a blemish that would occasionally appear).

Since it looked to me as if my son knew how to get the shirt and pants ironed, I didn't interfere or offer suggestions.

It was around that time when he also asked if he could wash his own clothes. It just seemed that he liked feeling he was on top of things in his life. It took all of 30 seconds, I'm guessing, to give him the rundown on hot, warm, and cold water for which clothes. Explaining about separating some items, and about how some colors may run in hot water, took another ten seconds.

My theory was always that ironing and washing made my son feel grown up because he had come to see such tasks as what grown-ups do.

My other two children showed no interest in ironing their clothes from fifth grade on, but once they got to be in their early teens they just took it upon themselves to throw in their own wash. If I were doing a wash I may ask if anyone had anything to add to it, but, in general, they just washed their own clothes.

Upon thinking about it, I realize that my mother never told me how to wash or iron either. She, as I did, gave me quick pointers about not mixing whites and colors somewhere along the way. Never, though, did she ask me to do my own laundry. Neither did she ever show me any ironing tricks. Still, as my own kids did, once I got to a certain age I just washed my own clothes. If I had a need to iron them I would iron them.

Throwing in a load of any kind of clothes isn't a difficult thing to figure out. Ironing is something most of us figured out by following the fabric guidelines on the iron's settings labels. It doesn't take anyone very long to figure out that some ironing motions make new wrinkles or that the wrong setting will make the fabric start to stick a little.

I don't believe that the job of washing and ironing the family's laundry should become the responsibility of children; but when it comes to their own clothes, I think most kids just figure out when it's time to wash their own and iron them if they think they need it.

Washing and ironing one's own clothes is a part of life, the way brushing one's teeth is. Washing and ironing are not great skills, great art, a lofty goal, or most people's choice of a career. I tend to suspect if we just do our laundry and don't make a big deal out of what a chore it is, our kids grow up and see it the same way.

Learn more about this author, Lisa H Warren.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.