A few months ago my husband Bill, my son Andrew and I were staying at a fancy downtown hotel.  We were in this really great suite and Andrew was checking out the room.  “Oh, look—a mini-vac,” he said when he opened the closet door.  Bill and I looked at the “mini-vacuum” hanging on the wall and looked at each other sheepishly.  The item on the wall wasn’t a mini-vacuum at all, it was an iron!

“Oy!”  I thought to myself.  “My own son doesn’t even know what an iron is!  I am so non-domestic!”  Bill and I couldn’t bring ourselves to tell Andrew right then so we just said, “Oh, yes, how great!  If we have extra crumbs lying around we’ll be sure to use it!”  Thank goodness we didn’t spill any CHEEZ-IT crackers that weekend! 

Then, a few weeks ago, Andrew was playing at our neighbor Amy’s house.  On my way to pick him up my cell phone rang.  “Do you know that Andrew has no idea what an iron is?” asked Amy, (Oops—I had totally forgotten to explain the whole mini-vac/iron thing!)  Then, Amy went on to explain…
“Andrew walked in the room and said, ‘What is this, Amy?’
“This is an ironing board, Andrew,” Amy told him.
“What do you do with it?” he said…

Now, in my defense, I did iron rather often when Andrew was little and he did see me iron a few times, he just doesn’t remember.  In fact, I was pretty good at ironing and actually enjoyed it.  Eventually, Bill and I got to a point where we decided to only buy clothes that are “wrinkle-free” and if something does wrinkle we send it to the dry-cleaner, re-wash and dry it or hang it in the washroom and let the shower-steam take out the wrinkles. 

After Amy informed me that she spends an exhausting amount of time ironing each week, I felt the need to find out if I was the only one that doesn’t iron or was Amy living in the stone ages?  I asked some random people if they use an iron or not and if their kids see them ironing.  Below are some responses:
“When I do iron, it’s with the iron that my childhood cleaning lady gave me as a high school graduation gift.  What can I say, we were close!  And perhaps she was trying to send me a message (which I evidently did not take).  I think I used it 3 times before my daughter joined Daisies and now I’ve only used the iron to iron patches on her uniform, which she didn’t see me do.”
“My husband says he can count on both hands the number of times I’ve ironed since we’ve been married and we’ve been married 14 years!”

“My kids act like it's a new and exciting toy every time I break out the iron.  I have to admit that I'm not a terrific ironer and clothes tend to maintain a fair share of their wrinkles when I make the effort.”

“About a year ago, we had a water leak in the laundry area in our basement.  The iron was in there and got soaked so we threw it out and haven't replaced it since!”

“As a rule, I don’t iron at all!  Last summer, I had recently taken weeks off from my tennis game to let my tennis elbow heal.  Then, I had to iron on HUNDREDS of labels onto everything my daughter owned for overnight camp.  I spent over 4 hours ironing on the labels one day and ended up reinjuring my elbow from it, which took me out of tennis for several more weeks - definitely NOT worth it.  When people asked me why I returned to tennis wearing an elbow brace, I told them, “I have IRON-elbow!”  I hope my daughter still fits into her underwear, socks and clothes from last summer because I’m not going through that again!  Hazards of the job, I guess!”

“We usually re-wash wrinkled clothes, dry them and take them out of the dryer immediately to hang them up.”

“My kids saw me ironing patches for a Girl Scout uniform two years ago.” 
“I got one of those toy plastic washer/dryer sets when the kids were little.  It has a pull-out ironing board on the side and came with a little iron.  My kids had no idea what the iron was!  They thought it was a big phone!” 
“This year my iron has seen far more action from Hama beads than actual clothing!”

“My children have never seen me iron, or cook for that matter!”

“I recall trying to iron letters onto my junior high gym uniform but failed and I had to get a new uniform.  As an adult, I’ve ruined a few nice pieces of clothing when the iron got too hot.  I’m definitely done with ironing.”

“I never iron because I iron in more wrinkles than I iron out! Now, I put my clothes in the dryer for ten minutes and then hang them up wet.  I dry-clean the few "fancy" items I have.”

“This is the first time I have thought of ironing in years.”

“Dryer.  Wrinkle-release mode.”

“I HATE to iron!!!  This is the one part of housework that I absolutely detest.  The reason why is I'll spend 20 minutes on a button-down shirt and it'll still look wrinkled!  I'm just not any good at it and I feel like it's such a waste of time when my rate is usually 3 shirts per hour and they don't even look good when I’m done.  So, now I dry clean everything.  The only exception is if I absolutely must have something ironed that day, then I will bust out the ironing board- but other than that- NEVER!  And, no, my kids never see me iron because I never do it!  Plus, I'm so worried that they might accidentally get burned.”

“I don't buy clothes that need to be ironed.  When I do iron, it's usually to iron on patches for my son’s Cub Scout uniform.  My kids see me do that stuff and of course want to help but I don't let them.  I get wrinkles out of my clothes by "re-fluffing" in the dryer.  Sometimes a load gets "re-fluffed" many times before I remember they're there to get them out quickly to fold.   If I put something on that's wrinkled in a couple of spots from folding or hanging funny, I wet the spots down, hold them straight and blow dry on high.  A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!”  

“I only iron my son’s khaki pants and button downs (which he wears maybe 3 times a year) because I cannot fathom sending his little clothes to the dry cleaners.  I send my husband’s and mine to the cleaners!!  My mom however, LOVES to iron!  My dad's armoire looks like Nordstrom!!  It's really sick.”

I was definitely surprised at these answers.  Even my mom gave up ironing.  “I use a steamer now and it’s the best thing I’ve ever bought!” she said.  Is there anyone out there who still irons?  If so, I’d love to hear about it!  To contact me about future columns email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.susandubin.com.