You might be sad to see your children fly the nest and leave home…but you’re only human if you’re not also secretly glad at having fewer people to look after. Halving the housework sounds attractive, right? Well, the days of washing fewer clothes may be further away than you think. Not only is the average age of a child leaving home now 23 – even moving away for pastures new won’t stop them turning up with washing for you to tackle, according to a survey by Beko.
Three reasons young adults use laundry of Mum and Dad
Why? Well, according to the children there are lots of reasons. The three most used excuses discovered by Beko were:
- “My washing machine broke”
- “I was visiting mum and dad anyway so took my washing along”
- “It’s cheaper”
Other reasons given include
- “I prefer the smell of their washing powder”
- “Their washing machine is better”
- “It’s less noisy”
How necessary is the ‘launderette of mum and dad’? According to Beko, it’s doing a roaring trade. It found that 65% of people asked still rely on some help with laundry from mum and dad and 11% of those in their 30s still call on mum and dad to do some of their laundry.
If you’re going to be running a busy parental launderette, why not set some ground rules in place first? These can include:
- Making ‘booking in advance’ necessary
- A list of appropriate gifts to serve as ‘payment’
- The need to help with pegging out
- A planning process so that you can do collective loads – and save on time, water and washing powder.
Maybe you can also take the time to offer some guidance on how to wash clothes. You might not appreciate that this can be quite a daunting task for your children. Rest assured that your kids trust you on this too. Indeed, 53% of 20-29 year olds saying they would ‘ring mum up’ if they are unsure about how to wash something, compared to just 41% who would Google it. It’s nice to be wanted isn’t it?
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