<p>Count me among those who do not see doing one’s own laundry as virtuous. For many of us, it is drudgery. I see nothing wrong with college students spending that time otherwise engaged in almost any other activity, including socializing.</p>
<p>Adding: Both of my college Ds did their own laundry. Not because I wanted them to, but because I felt that scheduling around a service to clean the clothes you want to wear, when you want to wear them, was more complicated than doing it yourself. (Like when the dress you want to wear that day is at the drycleaner until Thursday. arrrgh)</p>
<p>I’ve always thought that part of living away from home for college was learning how to live well on a very minimal income. I live on substantially less than what I would earn working full time on minimum wage, and actually I manage to live quite comfortably off that (I’m not in the US, but min wage here is the equivalent of $9.33ph gross + 28 days paid holiday). </p>
<p>I’m still amazed that parents allow their children to leave home - let alone emigrate - without even the most rudimentary of life skills. I live with an Eastern European international student who, three years after leaving home and emigrating has just discovered how to heat up tinned soup and regards kitchen scales as ‘scary’. I had to teach her how to use a washing machine. As far as I’m aware, being incompetent isn’t a status symbol in her home country.</p>
<p>What are kitchen scales? I’ve never used them, nor seen anyone here use them. Does that make me incompetent?</p>
<p>Just because people choose not to do certain chores does not mean they don’t know how to do them. That some people choose to do certain chores themselves does not mean they are more competent. It could actually mean they are less competent in budgeting their time and money wisely.</p>
<p>Rich people can support many more people than poor ones–and can make poor ones employed, happier and middle-class. The more the better. Keeping the money in a vault helps nobody.</p>
<p>Just because people choose not to do certain chores does not mean they don’t know how to do them. That some people choose to do certain chores themselves does not mean they are more competent. It could actually mean they are less competent in budgeting their time and money wisely.<< </p>
<p>Unfortunately she really is that incompetent, and freely admits that at age 22 she has no idea how to cook. In my eyes, and the eyes of everyone else we live with, that’s pathetic. She seems to rely on having takeout delivered and having seen the diet that she eats she is heading for an early grave.</p>
<p>If she could cook, then she wouldn’t be relying on take-out all the time, which is most definitely not healthy. Of course you can cook unhealthy meals from scratch, but it’s far easier to cook something healthy than get a healthy take out delivered. </p>
<p>Where I come from, it’s not normal at all; of the seven of us in the house, six can cook well - but I’m in a university system that treats you as an adult at 18 and it’s the norm to live off campus from sophomore year, as we are, so it’s not even like she has many options with regards to eating on campus.</p>
<p>I knew a young man in college who I liked very much. He was in the same fraternity as one of my closest friends. He worked part time at a grocery store sacking groceries to pay his fraternity dues because his parents felt this was an “extra” which he should finance himself. He didn’t have a car, but rode his bicycle everywhere happily. He was very nice and seemed to have a great head on his shoulders. He was polite, friendly, and studious.</p>
<p>A few years after I graduated, I saw an article in People magazine about his sister, who was dating a celebrity. It mentioned that their family’s net worth was in excess of $200 million (in 1980’s)! </p>
<p>You could have knocked me over with a feather. Just goes to show you can’t make assumptions of people-how rich or poor kids should act.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with being wealthy or having nice things or the ability to travel, etc. I do think it’s important to appreciate what one has, and I would want my child to be able to take care of herself by the time she is in college. To me, “spoiled” isn’t that someone has a lot, but that they don’t appreciate it, or they flaunt it, or feel entitled to it.</p>
<p>Boomting whyshould someone who is incredibly wealthy have to learn how to live on a shoe string budget? Yes hard time could happen somehow they could wind up with no money, but realistically if someone has say $100mill in a trust fund, why should they live on a budget if they don’t have to? </p>
<p>It really bothers me how overly concerned people are with how strangers spend money, and how having money is starting to be looked at as a bad thing.</p>
<p>Good for the kids in the article. I’m sure there are people in the world that might sneer at the people in this thread who are reading the article through their macbook pros or ipads and can’t take care of themselves without the convenience of all the stores around them practically giving them food and supplies. No one here needs to grow their own food to survive - why should we? The kids in the article don’t need to do their own laundry - why should they, when they can just buy new clothes after they use the old ones. Also, they’re probably paying full tuition and will contribute to the university’s endowment.</p>
<p>Yes, and there seems to be a certain glee among some about the concept of taxing the hell out of the “rich,” almost a punitive attitude towards people who, depending on one’s definition, may not even be all that wealthy. Redistribution of wealth and all that.</p>
<p>That said, even if I won the powerball, D2 can still do her own laundry. :D</p>
<p>This thread isn’t about putting down rich people. It is about students who hire others to do tasks they could be doing themselves, either because they say they don’t have time for them or because they think they are “menial”. Those students aren’t necessarily from wealthy families. Read The Millionaire Next Door. Many of the wealthiest people are the ones who live like they aren’t.</p>
<p>I admire people who have become wealthy by scrimping and saving and doing for themselves. It bothers me that we live in such a throwaway society and that so many people do not see the value of doing their own work. We have taught our children (I hope successfully!) to value saving over spending and that no honest work is beneath them, regardless of how bright and/or financially stable they may be. We have also taught them that sometimes they have to do things that they don’t want to do and that doing those things builds character. (Yes, I remember how much I disliked those “character-building” chores as a child, but now I appreciate them.)</p>
<p>Granted, people are free to choose how they will spend their money and time. The people who benefit the most are the entrepreneurs who figure out honest ways to get others to part with their money. Some of them will be, if they are not already, the millionaires next door.</p>
<p>As for kitchen scales: I’ve known a number of great, make-it-from-scratch, cooks, and not one of them used scales. Come to think of it, I’ve never even seen kitchen scales. :)</p>
<p>^^^Back in the day when my Mom did Weight Watchers, she was supposed to use a kitchen scale. I think some diets recommend them to help people understand what a “healthy portion” actually is with the thought that eventually you ditch it when you can finally eyeball it correctly.</p>
<p>The post in question not only said the girl didn’t know how to use one, but that it “scared her.” I thought that was odd.</p>
<p>I’ve got no problem with rich people in general spending their money on silly, self-indulgent, or unnecessary things. The thing that I think is regrettable in this college concierge situation if that these particular rich kids are college students. They are at a key developmental stage in their lives when they are transitioning from being dependent children into being adults, hopefully independent, responsible, and competent adults. </p>
<p>Thus with Jeeves at their beck and call to take care of life’s details these students are at risk of becoming dependent and incompetent Bertie Woosters as adults - paralyzed whenever Jeeves is unavailable or, heaven forbid, when the money runs short.</p>
<p>It’s similar to students paying others to write their term papers or do their homework for them, except without the cheating aspect. By paying others to be responsible, to be competent, to do the drudgery, and to take care of details for them they are missing out on a key learning opportunity important in their development.</p>
<p>Is there minimum time limit for benefiting from this “key learning opportunity?” If I cleaned my own toilets for two months before deciding I never wanted to do it again in my life so I hired a cleaning service, was that long enough for me to develop properly? </p>
<p>Are there specific key tasks that are mandatory in the development process? Do I have to do all my own sewing, make my clothes, kill all invasive insects by flyswatter, color and cut my own hair, mold my own candles and soap and churn my own butter? Or is it just laundry and ordering my own concert tickets I must do?</p>
<p>My point is that all of these opinions and rules for life are subjective. If you want to do all of them and force your kids to do them, then by all means go ahead. People who choose not to do them are perfectly okay, too. If they need to learn to put laundry detergent in a machine and turn it on after they graduate, I have no worries at all over whether they will be able to manage it.</p>