Pay daughter for doing ironing?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

st999 wrote: »

A friend of mine has been recently widowed and prior to this he and his wife were paying someone to do the ironing, I think it was £15 a time.

Now that he is on his own there is of course less ironing to do and he suggested to his only daughter that she could do the ironing instead of paying someone to do it.

She is married with 3 teenage children and doesn't work.

She replied with "OK I will do it for what you were paying ironing lady, it will give me some extra spending money"

He, of course, thinks she should do it for nothing.

What do others think?

That he needs to learn how to look after himself.

LilElvis

melanzana wrote: »

No, you are doing it wrong love. Linen is creased the minute you put it on you surely, that's what linen does!

Sheets and stuff? Same thing, the minute you get into the bed all that ironing is for naught.

As long as it's clean it's fine.

I don't iron anymore, unless it is something for a wedding or funeral, but even then, I have a system that says buy non iron clothing! Ironing is fine for the crisp shirts some men wear to work, if that's the case they can do it themselves.

Anyway you get my drift I am sure....

It's only cheap linen which creases badly - the better quality fabrics might rumple a little but don't get sharp creases in when worn, I've found Hobbs, Jigsaw and Nicole Farhi to be very good. Knitted linen generally needs even less care so you can go cheaper - White Stuff have a lot of pieces in their summer range.

Good quality cotton bedlinen doesn't crease either. The knack is to iron it whilst still slightly damp.

I'm very far from being a domestic goddess but I can't stand rumpled looking clothing - ironing a t-shirt takes less than a minute. I also can't abide the feel of the nasty non-iron fabrics with a high polyester content.

Pollycat

LilElvis wrote: »

It's only cheap linen which creases badly - the better quality fabrics might rumple a little but don't get sharp creases in when worn, I've found Hobbs, Jigsaw and Nicole Farhi to be very good. Knitted linen generally needs even less care so you can go cheaper - White Stuff have a lot of pieces in their summer range.

Good quality cotton bedlinen doesn't crease either. The knack is to iron it whilst still slightly damp.

I'm very far from being a domestic goddess but I can't stand rumpled looking clothing - ironing a t-shirt takes less than a minute. I also can't abide the feel of the nasty non-iron fabrics with a high polyester content.

Me neither.


Maybe some people just care a little more about their appearance than other people do.

Money_maker

Iamadored wrote: »

What does "treated properly post wash" entail exactly?
Even when I fold items or hang them up as soon as I take them out of the dryer, they still look a little crinkled and unironed. So, I still iron most things. Am I missing a trick?

Yes, using a dryer. Use a hanger if you can or rack and shake the garment straight. A dryer creases it all up.

Tabbytabitha

Pollycat wrote: »

Me neither.


Maybe some people just care a little more about their appearance than other people do.

Maybe some people have a life;)

Tabbytabitha

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

That he needs to learn how to look after himself.

That's a very aggressive attitude to take towards a recently widowed, elderly gentleman.:(

Pollycat

Tabbytabitha wrote: »

Maybe some people have a life;)

Maybe some people can manage to do ironing and have a life....:D

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Tabbytabitha wrote: »

That's a very aggressive attitude to take towards a recently widowed, elderly gentleman.:(

Not really. If he has never looked after himself before because there's always been somebody there to do it for him, he needs to learn to do it.

As a grandparent of teenagers, I'd expect we are talking about somebody in their 70s, not their 90s, so they'd have reached adulthood in the 1960s-70s; plenty of time to get the idea that a domestic iron isn't Kryptonite to males.

If I were being aggressive/blunt, I'd say that the daughter may not work outside her home, but he's going to need something to do to fill in the empty spaces - learning to iron/cook/clean if he doesn't know how to do them would at least distract him from sitting down feeling sad for at least a short time.

I wonder whether the daughter's open agreement to do it on the same basis as the person who already did is a form of getting him active rather than becoming dependent upon carers? If he begins to rely upon her (and as a parent of teenagers, she's already very busy - not everybody wants to go straight from caring for children to caring for parents, especially if they don't actually need it - or if it means ironing somebody's boxers and bedsheets when they just about handle 15-20 shirts a week on a Sunday night), it could be worse psychologically than a slightly brusque 'great, I'll accept it as a job'.


If he's actually hoping that doing it would mean she'd come round more because he's lonely, he needs to say so.

suki1964

I have to agree with pollycat here, I iron clothes, sheets, tee towels, towels and face cloths

I don't even like ironing

I just stick on something I want to watch and get stuck in

I'm strangely rather looking forward to getting my new iron ( delivered an hour ago) set up and getting stuck in


I do have a life

As for the OQ , I think if I was the daughter I would be asking dad on how I could help him and if the ironing was needed doing, I would do it without charge. A few extra bits isn't going to incroach on my life

If dad was completely helpless around the home and was struggling I would advise a cleaner to come in once a week to keep on top of things

happyandcontented

I pay someone to do it! I would rather be at work or relaxing than ironing or cleaning but I do like it done, so I pay someone else.