My favorite chore since I was a kid. I was proud during my college years when I overhead my sainted Mom tell a friend, “I haven’t had to touch a dish since Donnie has been home.” A small virtue but my own.
I think I have always liked washing dishes because I have always been intrigued by the concept of something becoming fresh like new, as a soul after confession. Also, most tasks in my life take time and much effort before I see results. With doing dishes the payoff is immediate. Of course sometimes an item, the bane of my existence is forks, isn’t quite clean as my Bride gently points out. I then quickly clean it and honestly, and forthrightly, blame the dog for any shortcomings in my dishwashing efforts.
Advice to my fellow men: doing the dishes is an excellent way to bring a most attractive sheen to the eyes of most wives, at least judging by the envy other women have expressed when my Bride notes that I happily do the dishes.
I agree a hundred percent. The two things I insist on doing are washing the dishes and mowing the lawn. Both are also therapeutic in their own ways and provide a little bit of an escape. Of course, mowing two acres takes a little longer!
Can’t say I do all the dishes, but the machine and I do most. When it comes to pots & pans though -I do them all. My wife does say:
“Nobody does it better… Though sometimes I wish someone could…”
Having worked in school kitchens for two years in HS and all four in college, mostly washing and stacking rack upon rack of dishes and utensils, I now reserve my hand washing skills for the fancy stainless steel cookware I’ve acquired in the past few years. But since I do all the cooking and wash my own pots and pans, my bride is happy to prepare the rest of the items for the automatic dishwasher. 😀
Still washing dishes here, along with my other archaic habits.
Have a nice clothesline too.
My first job (college) cleaning labware. I’m very thankful for the dishwasher.
In our household my husband does the pots and pans. I’m happy with that because cast iron is too heavy for me. Crystal, nice china and heirlooms I do wash by hand. We don’t use except on holidays. Everything else goes in the dishwasher because I think it is more sanitary. This may sound crazy but I enjoy the geometry of arranging the items. It’s like a
puzzle. My husband frequently will put a plate directly in front of a soup bowl or add utensils to the dishwasher with cheese or egg on them, and sometimes dries a wet plate with a used hand towel. Not sanitary. But… he is learning to cook and has turned out some delicious meals such as he did tonight. I see that he has a recipe out with ingredients for a cheese cake. Yum.
I can’t say I ever enjoyed washing dishes, exactly. I do, however, prefer having dishes clean to dirty. ..and …. my dishwasher experiences have been hit or miss. I’ve found the least wretched way to get things clean with “minimal” fuss–and the first time around–is… wash them by hand.
I grew up as oldest of eight. I hated hand washing the mounds of dishes.
We still hand wash dishes, but I load as much as I can in the dishwasher. With seven kids, it’s a little hard to call handwashing therapeutic. 🤣
My husband never proposed to me but simply started planning the wedding (“Do you prefer a live band or a DJ?”, “Do you think chicken or ham or both would be good to serve at the reception?”, “Do you mind if my cousin Lois is the soloist at Mass and my friends Urb and Mike play the ‘Trumpet Voluntaire” as the recessional?”)
When he asked me to go with him to a jeweler to pick out rings, he got my attention.
And he absolutely won my heart when he told me he would wash all the dishes I want as long as I do the cooking (in addition to his being a fine and devout Catholic man and Knight of Columbus and an all-around nice guy.) We never have owned a dishwasher. And I have not washed very many dishes in our long and happy marriage – 37 years in April!
[…] American Catholic8. Jesus of Nazareth (1977) – Anthony M. Esolen, Ph.D., at Word & Song9. “I’ll Rid Up the Dishes!” – Donald R. McClarey, J.D., at the American Catholic10. Bacteria: Mars vs. Earth – […]