Teaching My Husband to Iron

I have been in the military for almost 12 years and I used to iron my uniforms every other day because I was a poor Airman who couldn't afford sending them to the dry cleaners. As I put on more stripes I marinated in the luxury of the dry cleaners, I drop them off, pick them up 2 days later and have amazingly starched and ironed uniforms that crinkle when I put them on. Even when I was in Kuwait I would send them out to be heavily starched and they were fantastic. Now that I only put on my uniform 24 days out of the year I once again iron them - even though our new uniforms are "wrinkle free" I still enjoy a crisp crease in my stripes. Let me say that I HATE IRONING. I HATE IT. I spent enough years doing it almost daily and it became the most dreaded chore ever.

Now that I am a stay at home mom and wife I do housework every day. I like it because I like things to be clean, organized and in it's place. Of course there are some things I don't like doing, such as emptying the dishwasher, folding fitted sheets, scraping off baked on foods, but I do them because I like them done a certain way. But I do not care to iron. Joel has to wear nice shirts to work every single day and every few weeks he asks me to iron...then he asks a couple days after that...and a couple more days after that. When I finally get around to it, I'll do maybe 3 or 4 shirts and then I need a break...for another few weeks. I know he gets frustrated because really I do know HOW to iron, so there is no reason I shouldn't.

Just this last time, I told Joel that he needs to learn to iron because I can't do it anymore. I will fold underwear, hang up pants, wipe up hair shavings from the sink, but I don't want to iron. So I am going to teach him how to iron...maybe tonight since he has about 10 shirts that need to be done. Who can really tell how this will go? I am not sure it will even work, but I am going to be optimistic going into it. Really I am. True, he as never ironed and true, he only just figured out how to make tacos, and true, he still asks me how long to warm something up in the microwave - but let's still give this a try. We may be down 10 shirts or a marriage by tomorrow morning - but honestly - if it gets me out of ironing ever again, I will take that chance.