I have read a myriad of comments about the house and laundry on this board.

I think the problem started a long time ago - 17 or 18 years ago or whenever Amy and Matt got married.
I presume Matt was on crutches back then so an untidy house is a hazard for him to negotiate with a risk of taking a nasty tumble. Right at the outset Amy should have taken care of this and if not Matt should have pointed out the danger and asserted his position.
There have been lots of comments about the kids searching for clean clothes and sniffing them to see which is sufficiently non odious to wear again. Again Amy has some responsibility here. I have to admit I never did any laundry until I left home at 18. My mother had an established laundry day - Monday. If we put our dirty clothes in the basket on time they got washed and put back in our rooms. If we didn't do that it was our problem if we had to wear less than fresh clothes until the next Monday. She changed our bed linens on the same weekly schedule (and we did have sheets on our beds)and we had three bath towels a week. Even in the military we didn't do our own laundry. We handed it in once a week.

The kids could have been trained to be more tidy but should not be expected to do laundry particularly when Amy has more than one set of the latest high capacity laundry machines.

I agree that kids shouldn't do laundry. I never did, and never expected my children to as well. But, I actually did the laundry and changed their sheets. I would never in a million years have thought about leaving them to sleep on their mattress, or smell their clothing to see which were clean. Amy is just pure and simple a L A Z Y and miserable person as far as I'm concerned.

And you're right, Matt sure can't get around to do those things indoors, and I find it interesting that the kids bend over backwards to do everything for him outside, but nothing for their Mom inside.

I think it's extremely important for kids, especially boys, to learn to do their own laundry just in case they might be thinking of growing up to expect some woman to do it for them. But the R's housekeeping has long since ceased to interest me much, but it will have a certain 'afterlife' on their offspring.
jmo tho.

I don't understand why kids shouldn't do laundry. My daughter does her laundry and her brother's; she's 18, and will start college in the fall. My son will be learning very soon to do laundry as well; he's going into 8th. He pretty much already knows the basics. Why shouldn't they get used to being responsible for their own clothing? By the way -- if my daughter weren't going to college, she'd have to begin to pay *some* room and board if she continued living at home. Its not a
'punishment', its a way to get her used to being a responsible adult, one that has to learn to budget and prioritize, among other things. My parents raised me the same way.

The Roloffs don't handle housekeeping the way my family does. They are living with the consequences of their actions in the here and now ( a messy home, with insufficient clean clothes availabe ) and their kids will likely carry on that tradition. For me and mine, we do things differently.

i guess everyone how there own opinion on housecleaning, but that is just the way the roloffs are and they seem happy with it. no not everyone could handle that, but we arent them. thank you

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Originally posted by micki42972:
i guess everyone how there own opinion on housecleaning, but that is just the way the roloffs are and they seem happy with it. no not everyone could handle that, but we arent them. thank you

Zach and Matt (and even Molly) have made negative comments about the mess. So I would have to disagree in regards to all of them being happy with it.

I don't believe any of the Roloff's are happy about the mess. We've seen evidence of this on numerous shows. They're not happy about it, but they don't do anything to make things better either. I think if we could travel back in time, we might all find that this started with Amy. She definitely wants to be in control even though she won't do the work herself, but she doesn't want anyone else to do it either.

As for the laundry, I think it is the parents responsibility to see that it gets done. Whether Amy does all the laundry by herself, or instructs the children how to do their own laundry, she still must see that it gets done.

Matt and Amy really have been rather lapse when it comes to any sort of discipline and structure in their children's lives.

The fact that they have more than one set of machines is all the more reason for the kids to do laundry. There is no reason why, as teenagers, they shouldn't do laundry. They even have a set right outside their bedroom door. They should do their clothes and the towels for that bathroom they use. Forget sheets, I guess they don't own any. JMO

As far as laundry is concerned... I don't have my daughter do the entire family's laundry, just her's and her brother's. The only reason her brother's is included is to make the loads of sufficient size. This is to teach her how to maintain her clothes, to prepare her for adulthood and to instill routines and good habits -- its not an excercise in drudgery. I feel that is my responsibility as a parent to teach this. I do the remainder of the household laundry.

I don't think the Roloffs are happy with the way things are -- but Amy prevents them from doing anything differently. IMHO, its a control issue with her. I don' think Amy is happy with it either however.

I agree with Mort..no reason teenagers shouldn't do laundry.
I also think it is not just Amy's job to be responsible for the laundry. They ALL should do it.(it's not like they are toddlers) If she won't and they want clean clothes they are ALL old enough to throw some in the washer.. If Amy won't do it or teach them how, Matt could tell them how or I'm sure they could figure it out themselves anyhow. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out laundry.

No, you sure don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out laundry. None of the Roloffs are rocket scientists but they still can't figure out laundry!

I say it's Amy's responsibility because Matt can't haul around baskets of laundry. We've all seen Matt try to rally the kids to clean the house and Amy quickly shoots him down, so if Matt were to teach the children to do laundry, this too would be stopped by Amy. We've witnessed it numerous times. So, in the end, THIS is Amy's fault.

That is true..Matt can't haul around baskets. I guess I just don't feel laundry is always the mom's/women's job. I think if the kids put a load in the washer and it was actually washing I don't see what Amy could do about it..I mean uless she literally took out the wet clothes and threw them out of the washer..say..that would be an interesting episode and give us more conversation on this forum. Or seeing Amy guard the washer with a paint ball gun. lol

I don't think Amy would have a problem with the kids doing laundry, but she would have a problem with Matt telling the kids to do the laundry. So, if the kids do it on their own, that would probably be ok with her.

I just don't know many kids that are going to do laundry without being taught how to do it, and instructed to do so. They also need to be taught how to remove stains and such. You can really ruin some clothes if you don't know what you're doing.

I may be old fashioned, but I think this is Amy's job and she's failing miserably. If she doesn't want to do the laundry, then she needs to teach them how to do it, and make sure they do it properly. Children shouldn't be sifting through dirty piles of laundry for something to wear.

There is no reason at all that Molly and the twins can't pitch in on laundry duty. The least they should do is retrieve their own washed clothes from the laundry room and take them up to their rooms and put them away. If these kids can drive a mule, operate a bulldozer, and participate in other heavy equipment related duties on the farm, they can surely operate a washing machine and dryer!

Originally posted by winnie1:

quote:

If these kids can drive a mule, operate a bulldozer, and participate in other heavy equipment related duties on the farm, they can surely operate a washing machine and dryer!

One would definately think so!

I think the problem is organization.

I remember one episode, the Hawaii trip I think, no one had clean socks. Instead of washing the socks; they just went and bought new ones.

I don’t know if they put the laundry away? I think they just pile the clean laundry in a heap in their room. So, Zack does the “sniff test” to see if he is digging through the right pile.

I think their house is unorganized, but I do not find it to be filthy. To me, it looks unorganized. Some people can function under this kind of disarray; I know I can’t. But, if they cleaned the house up now, I would miss their mess.

They're definitely unorganized, but children model the behavior they see in their own parents. Amy leaves a mess everywhere, so do the kids. They just don't know any better. They've never lived in a clutter free house where laundry is actually folded and put away. They've never been taught to respect their things, and they are very wasteful, and very lazy when it comes to work. Again, they model after their parents. Amy is also very lazy when it comes to house work. Matt isn't the least bit lazy, but his disability prevents him from doing more.

quote:

They're definitely unorganized, but children model the behavior they see in their own parents. Amy leaves a mess everywhere, so do the kids. They just don't know any better. They've never lived in a clutter free house where laundry is actually folded and put away. They've never been taught to respect their things, and they are very wasteful, and very lazy when it comes to work. Again, they model after their parents. Amy is also very lazy when it comes to house work. Matt isn't the least bit lazy, but his disability prevents him from doing more.

I agree with you. The thing about Matt, though, is he has plenty of energy when it comes to thinking up projects for others to do. He's a real go-getter then. I don't question that his disability prevents him from doing a lot of things, but he needs to realize that some of his family's lack of enthusiasm for his projects is because they know they'll have to carry them out and that he is pretty bossy and opinonated about how things should be done. I've also noticed that once something is completed, he seems to lose interest. If I were Amy, that would give me an attitude for sure!

Originally posted by winnie1:

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The thing about Matt, though, is he has plenty of energy when it comes to thinking up projects for others to do.

AW...that made me laugh..so true.

I know in one episode they were at a pretty nice hotel, and Zach made the comment about, "going back to our messy house." It was funny and sad all at the same time.

quote:

Originally posted by winnie1:
I agree with you. The thing about Matt, though, is he has plenty of energy when it comes to thinking up projects for others to do. He's a real go-getter then. I don't question that his disability prevents him from doing a lot of things, but he needs to realize that some of his family's lack of enthusiasm for his projects is because they know they'll have to carry them out and that he is pretty bossy and opinonated about how things should be done. I've also noticed that once something is completed, he seems to lose interest. If I were Amy, that would give me an attitude for sure!

Winnie, I guess I should add that Matt's disability prevents him from doing house work, but Amy also stops him. Any efforts he puts into organizing the house are quickly stopped by her. Whether he is trying to rally the kids to clean, or hire someone to do the job.

Matt has stated that he gets a high off of starting new projects. It's the concept and planning of the project that gets him going, but it seems that he rarely sees any project all the way through to completion. By the time things are moving along, he's already bored and ready to start the next project. I have no doubt that this would absolutely drive Amy mad, but in my opinion Amy is much like this herself but on a much smaller scale, as she never seems to finish anything inside the house.

I think that Amy gets irritated because of the way that Matt handles some cleaning situations.

He seems to favor gathering stuff up and throwing it in the trash.

As far as Matt completing projects - He has finished quite a few. I mean, look at their farm. What projects has he not completed?

This has been mentioned on the show a few times. Here are a couple:

The peach stand - Matt built a covered pavillion, but it doesn't have a cover as there is no roof.

Molly's Castle - the castle was never finished, and Molly is 14 or so now, a little beyond the age of wanting a castle.

I know there are more but I can't think of them at the moment. There was an episode recently where they panned out over the farm showing each unfinished project one by one.

The odd thing about this lack of apparent laundry activity is the fact that they not only have the latest machines (Product placement) but have a set upstairs and downstairs. I don't know anybody alse who has that luxury in a single family building.