<p>Did anyone else get the renewal email from E&R? The offer of a $25 Vineyard Vines gift card with early renewal seriously cracked me up. 
</p>
<p>I used it as an excuse to email them and (again) request that the kids be allowed to make up any missed laundry drop offs the following week. My kid’s school picks up on Mondays… that is a bad day – there are too many Mondays with no school. We get cheated. There should be a set number of “loads” allowed. if you are behind, there should be a way to get an extra load done… we certainly pay enough.</p>
<p>book lady: love it! :)) </p>
<p>Kids are so weird. :)</p>
<p>(We’re perfectly normal, though…)</p>
<p>Am going to make sure S2 gets a lot of “practice” this summer doing laundry</p>
<p>What about dress shirts for the boys? Is it best to send them out for “dry cleaning” even though they could be washed with regular laundry, dried and pressed? I’ m just worried about shrinkage</p>
<p>Seriously, do you have a boy who will iron his shirts? If so, I’m very impressed! ;
</p>
<p>Cotton dress shirts get washed normally (not dry-cleaned), pressed, and delivered on a hanger.</p>
<p>Gotcha… I misread that and thought the kid was doing his own washable stuff.</p>
<p>My 16-year-old brother does his own laundry at home. He tends to leave it in the dryer forever and then yell at me for leaving mine in the washing machine when it’s not my job to sort his. :p</p>
<p>My wife and I visited our son last weekend, now out of college, and were commenting afterward how neat his apartment was (unlike his older sisters). When we sent him off to Thacher, he was responsible for doing his own laundry, although he was free to send his suits and dress shirts to the dry cleaner. What we found beginning with his first vacation in ninth grade is that he continued to do his laundry even at home. This continued all through college. My wife rarely helped out, except maybe as a favor now and again. Looking back, I think this small responsibility early on was habit forming and had the effect of making him responsible for a lot of life’s little housekeeping chores - a clean room, a clean apartment, making meals for himself, paying his bills on time, making his own doctor’s appointments etc. That’s not to say he hasn’t made his share of bonehead choices along the way, but little things like doing his own laundry starting when he was 14 seems to have paid dividends later.</p>
<p>@Cameo43 - NO-I do not have a DS that will iron his own shirts!!! 
I don’t think he would even know where the iron is in the house or what to do with it!</p>
<p>My DS just turned 14, he has been learning how to iron on his own during this last year. </p>
<p>This development has mostly transpired because as he has become a teen, the concept of “ample notice” that he would need to give us in order for us to do it for him (we work a lot) has gone by the wayside. </p>
<p>He has learned pretty quickly that if you are going to wait until the last minute, you’re going to have to do it yourself (ironing only one example). </p>
<p>So while I would like to say that it’s because he is developing into a self-reliant young adult, it may actually be the opposite. But you know, at least he can iron. I’ll take it. </p>
<p>Wrinkle-resistant shirts, anyone? </p>
<p>Wrinkle-resistant doesn’t feel “plasticky”?</p>
<p>Wrinkle- free anyone? Remember, “it is better to look good than to feel good.”. Ah, Billy Crystal, those were the days. :)</p>
<p>Not plasticky at all. I buy the men’s wrinkle-resistant dress shirts from Old Navy for my son, and they’re really quite nice (and as an added benefit, they also come in slim sizes, so they actually fit my beanpole of a son). They’re usually $40, but if you wait for a sale, you can get them for 20-30% or even more off. Last year, I hit the timing just right and managed to buy him 10 shirts for $200. Even my husband, who will only wear Brooks Brothers shirts himself, commented on how nice the Old Navy shirts were.</p>
<p>My daughter announced (well, actually texted) that she “knew how to iron now”. I asked who taught her. Her answer should not have surprised me: WikiHow. </p>
<p>We have been discussing whether to renew the E&R. Her opinion was that, due to dress code restrictions, it is hard to clean wool blazers, and other dry-clean-only things but as long as I provided quarters she could do it herself if necessary. I have to say we will probably renew the contract - as much as it pains me to do so…there really isn’t much time in the schedule as they have evening study halls… and if there is a far away game on Saturday, then everyone is fighting for the same few washers at exactly the same time. </p>
<p>As far as dress shirts, try Charles Tyrwhitt. A British clothier who frequently runs promotions with AMEX. I recently picked up 5 no-iron dress shirts for myself for $40/each via an AMEX promotion. Really good quality and brass collar stays as an added bonus!</p>
<p>London, I’m im-pressed (LOL)! I’m going to suggest WikiHow to my kid. She usually finds time to get her laundry done between dinner and study hall, or on Saturday mornings or Sundays. She sets the timer on her phone, so that she can run back and be there when the washer or dryer winds down. It’s no fun to forget about your wash and then find your stuff piled all around because someone else needed the machine.</p>