My brother is 21, and always does his own laundry. My mom used to do our laundry until a certain age, but then one day, she handed us our own laundry baskets, and said from now on, she isn't touching our laundry. It was time for us to start doing it ourselves. I was 11 or 12 at the time..........my brother was 3 years older. He was reluctant about it.........I figured it would be fun. Turned out that we would use up ALL our clothes before even thinking to do the laundry, and would wash them when we had nothing left to wear. Our mom put the responsibility on us though, and was determined for us to *get it* without her help, so with time, we realized WHEN we need to do our laundry, and started to do it on time. My brother still has his moments when he gets lazy and asks me to do his laundry for him *which I often *cough* refuse to do *cough*, but on the most part, he does it himself. I don't think its *completely* a gender thing, but from what I have seen, a lot of men try to ditch their chores..........more than women do. I have an aunt like that though, and in her house, my uncle does everything and she does nothing , so I guess there are women like that too. Either way, I think *all* kids should be taught to do things for themselves, whether they are boys, OR girls.