Do you/Will you handle your household differently from your parents?

[popcornbird]

I was just ironing some clothes for my mom and started thinking of this topic. Yes, ironing triggered the thought!

Do you, or will you (if you still live with your parents) handle your household in a different manner from your parents?
The reason ironing clothes triggered this thought was because my mom has always had this habit of ironing entire LOADS of clothes and hanging them in the closet neatly and ready to wear. It takes hours, and personally, I do not like it at all.

Ever since I have been old enough to handle my own clothes, I just wash/dry them, and hang them right away. When I want to wear them, I will take out the pair of clothes I need, iron them, and wear them right away. That takes no more than a few minutes. With my mom's way of handling clothes, that chore lingers around all day. Its something that never gets done because its an ongoing process. My brother and I both handle our own clothes, but my mom STILL irons entire loads of my dad's and her own clothes. Sometimes, she is standing there for hours, and I can't help but question why she does it. There's no reason to tire yourself like that when you can iron the pair of clothes you need before wearing them in just two minutes. Sometimes my mom wants me to iron her loads of clothes.......like today. As I was doing it, I thought of how I would handle this chore when I'm married and have to take care of my own household. I don't think I will handle laundry/ironing like my mom does. That is something I will handle differently. I will wash and dry the clothes and hang them, and iron one pair just when its needed. It saves a lot of time if you think about it.

Of course there are certain things that I will do in the same way as my parents, but at the same time, I see myself doing other things completely different.

I could write a lot more in this thread, about different things, but I have to get back to ironing before I get in trouble. Just thought this would make an interesting thread. Do you, or will you, handle household chores in the same way as your parents? Have you/will you raise your kids in the same way as your parents? Just wondering.

Oh.......I think and hope my household will have more pets too. He he he! It would probably be the same in most issues, but there are little things that I would like to have different.

[Lillycat]

i cant wait for the responses to roll in......pcb, this thread should be a hoot!!

[Tonya]

First off, I don't own an iron. I normally don't buy clothes that need to be ironed, the few that do, go off to the dry cleaners.

Ok...things that I do not (and will not) do that my mother did:

1) Make 5 days worth of lunch sandwiches on Sunday. My sandwiches were always soggy by Friday.

2) Make a huge batch of food and then seperate it into meals on paperplates and store it in the fridge. We don't like leftovers and that does not make it any more enticing!

And my BIGGEST one...

3) Not go grocery shopping until the cupboards and fridge are literally bare. That is sooo wrong. Force me to eat some wierd can of something or other because I know you won't go grocery shopping otherwise.

[stacwase]

My household is so much different from my parents' that I could write a book and still not cover everything!

My house is clean!

There is NO second hand smoke in my house

Pets ARE allowed in my house.

My kids are allowed to have their own opinions and aren't expected to kiss our butts 24/7.

[wolflady]

Originally posted by Tonya
...
3) Not go grocery shopping until the cupboards and fridge are literally bare. That is sooo wrong. Force me to eat some wierd can of something or other because I know you won't go grocery shopping otherwise.

LOL LOL

[sirrahbed]

The ironing got me giggling. My mom ironed everything! I'm talking clothes, pillowcases, sheets, even my dad's handerchiefs! I don't iron anything. If I take it out of the dryer warm and hang it up, why iron? I may take an iron to a collar or special dress now and then but very seldom. My mom was also a June Cleaver clone - you know her? Beaver's mom? Well, Monday is wash day, Tuesday is ironing, Wednesday is breadbaking...etc ad nauseam. Dust, vacumn, scrub bathrooms and kitchen, lysol on doorknobs and telephones....

I was a pretty relaxed mom - I was strict (the meanest mom on the block in fact ) but housework could wait because I would rather play with my kids. They were allowed to make messes and put crawdads in the bathtub. We grew maggots on hamburger. We made tents in the livingroom. We went camping. I tried to make them feel that they were the most wonderful kids in the world. I never bailed them out when they screwed something up or did something wrong. I hope they remember things like that.

I guess I have gone out of my way to take the good but to be as opposite as possible.

[GoldenRetrLuver]

Surprisingly, I don't think I'd do anything different. There may be a few things that I would change, but none that I can think of off the top of my head.

Except maybe, perhaps, a few more dogs.

[Cookiebaker]

Great thread, PCB!

My household is a LOT different than my parents. I dunno exactly how to describe it, but my parents were rather strict, and we are kind of relaxed. Part of it is just that we don't have kids.

And about the ironing thing? My Mom was horrified when she learned that I never use my iron. (I've only pulled it out 1-2 times since we moved 4 years ago ) But about a year ago, she confided to me that she hasn't used her iron in over a year either. Haha!!

[Tonya]

Matter of fact, if I had stayed single, I wouldn't be ironing at all. The only thing that I seem to wind up ironing is Mike and Jaden's dress shirt and slacks.

[carole]

I have to say my household is very different to my mother's as well, she is a neat freak, whereas I like to take the more lived in approach, I like it clean, but my place is untidy in comparison to her's, my sister on the other hand has her house very much like my mum's.

I also like my pets to be able to sleep on my beds, my mother and sister would not let theirs, I think I am more like one of my Aunty's.

I only iron when and if I need something, I even cheat and use the dryer to iron things out, as I am not passionate about ironing, whereas my mother irons everything right down to tea-towels and undies.

As a child I was never allowed to make a mess, I have let my children almost turn the place upside down, but they do have to clean up, as i can only stand a mess for so long., then it really gets to me.

So yes I guess I run my household very different indeed.

[Pam]

Well I confess to ironing! LOL! I just like a nice crease on things and you can't get that fresh out of the dryer. I draw the line at ironing things other than the clothes that we wear to work. I would never iron casual clothes and certainly not sheets! LOL!

My mom's housekeeping was not quite up to mine. She was so relaxed about it that often she couldn't find things that she wanted. That drove me crazy and probably contributed to me being so organized today. My parents also didn't take our pets to the vets for shots, etc. on a regular basis. I don't know if it "just wasn't done way back then" or if they were the only ones who didn't. As I think back I don't remember any of the neighbors really going to the vets unless a pet was sick or broke a bone or something. Amazingly, my childhood dog lived into his teens.

[Miss Meow]

Originally posted by stacwase
My household is so much different from my parents' that I could write a book and still not cover everything!

My house is clean!

There is NO second hand smoke in my house

Pets ARE allowed in my house.

My kids are allowed to have their own opinions and aren't expected to kiss our butts 24/7.

Here here for the smoke one! No smoke in my house and no clutter everywhere. I hate clutter! My parents' house is a monument to owl ornaments, bowling trophies, piles of clothes on the billards table and about 14 million golf balls

Oh and sometimes I go to my folks' house and peek in the fridge because I'm hungry, and there's trays and trays of liver, tongue, kidneys and all sorts of internal organs for her cat food. Ewwwwww Gets me out of the fridge I guess.

[popcornbird]

I'll probably be a clean freak, just like my mom. I *am* a clean freak. I can't stand kids making the slightest mess. My poor kids won't be allowed to make a mess in the house........at least I don't think I will allow them to. God knows if I will change my way of thinking when the time comes though. I was never allowed to make a big mess as a child, and my kids won't get the permission to do that either. I can't stand messy kids.

Manners-wise, I will probably raise my kids just like my mom and dad raised us. I know several people who have taught their kids NO manners, and they seem to destroy everything when visiting people. My mom would have never allowed me to touch/destroy things in the homes of other people, and my kids won't have that freedom either. They're going to have a strict mommy (behavior-wise). They'll have to be well-behaved. So as you can see........there will be some things I will do completely different, and some things, exactly the same.

Interesting responses everyone! Keep them coming.

BTW, I'm done with that iron load! Thank God!!!

I hate ironing...

[Tonya]

Originally posted by Miss Meow
Here here for the smoke one! No smoke in my house and no clutter everywhere. I hate clutter! My parents' house is a monument to owl ornaments, bowling trophies, piles of clothes on the billards table and about 14 million golf balls

Oh and sometimes I go to my folks' house and peek in the fridge because I'm hungry, and there's trays and trays of liver, tongue, kidneys and all sorts of internal organs for her cat food. Ewwwwww Gets me out of the fridge I guess.

I swear, our parents are so much alike!

[MariaM]

Well, lets just say it will be COMPLETELY different. It would take too long to explain