When I was a kid, I wasn’t allowed to wash the dishes. Apparently, I was too slow, and my brother resented spending his entire evening, waiting for each dish to be lovingly cleaned and placed in the drying rack. He appealed to my Mom, who sentenced me to a lifetime of drying.
Drying dishes has to be about the stupidest thing in the world. If you leave ‘em, they’ll dry by themselves, and you can put them away much more quickly; but my Mom always insisted that the dishes had to be dried. I retaliated by taking so long to dry them, that they air-dried anyway. I really showed her!
We recently spent a week in the Duckabush with my extended family — we often dined together as a group, some twenty strong. Somehow the women-folk got the idea that, since they were doing most of the cooking, we men-folk should manage the clean-up. And so, my brother and I turned the clock back some 40 years, and washed the dishes together.
At least this time I didn’t have to dry — but I was relegated to ‘rinsing’ since I still couldn’t be trusted to actually wash.
Well aware that the reward for a job well-done is often another job, we determined to wash the dishes in such a way that we would not be asked again. We shouted and threw dishes and sprayed water at each other, and generally carried on as though we were pillaging the kitchen, much to the amusement of our sons and brother-in-law. And yet, we failed — our plan backfired. Everyone had such fun watching our horseplay, that they called for us to wash dishes the next day as well.
Clearly we needed a better strategy. How do you avoid doing the dishes, gentle reader? Chime in with a comment.
I avoid doing the dishes by getting the menfolk to do them.
Why, I let my much older, responsible brothers wash the dishes, of course! I was always much too little to have to wash or dry the dishes – heh.heh…
First of all, congratulations for having such a fun family with lots of contributors. Being in a small family can be fun but not as much I think. I agree letting dishes dry by themselves makes more sense. They are more sanitary, too. While they are drying, the rest of the kitchen can be straightened and the counters washed and the floor swept. I learned this from my Finnish neighbors when I was a kid. Being an only child for 7 years, I learned most of my dishwashing skills from the neighbors. When I was four the lady next door would have me standing on a chair washing dishes. My mom was very fastidious but didn’t trust me much. When we would have Sunday dinner with our friends nextdoor there were 3 girls. I would get to wash because I didn’t know where stuff went. I’d better keep up or get towel whipped. I don’t think there is anyway to get out of this chore. You could use paper plates, but they are so messy looking sitting on the counter or stacking up in the garbage bin. There is no satisfaction in paper plates. My brother is 7 years younger than I am and got out of doing the dishes, but the next time we are together I have plans for the evening entertainment.
Yes, yes I did take that amazing picture.(:
You just have to marry someone with OCD who can’t stand dirty dishes. Brilliant, if you ask me. : )