Marriage Prerequisite

(Insert about 15 more spoons, a couple kid plates, and 7,000 sippy cup pieces and you pretty much have our dishwasher....)

One of the things I wish I had known before I had gotten married was how my husband-to-be loaded the dishwasher.  One of the things I wish I had known before I had kids was how they would load the dishwasher.

I kid you not.

I prided myself in being thee ultimate in loading so as not to leave any dishes remaining on the counter. I put some in, took some out, rearranged, and spent entirely too much time figuring out the best dynamics so the dishes fit well, utilized the space, and still got clean. It's a science.

But when it's not me who does the dishes I'll find cups spaced out, maybe a bowl thrown in here or there, plates not in a row but strewn in haphazardly, or sippy cups laying on their sides. No rhyme or reason to the degree of difficulty and time it should take to property load. I mean, C'MON!

What really stupefies me is when I open the dishwasher and find that we basically just steam cleaned all of the little pegs inside, plus 3 dishes.

I know I should just put those 3 clean spoons away and smile. Because really, I know that when my husband loads the dishwasher, it is a gift of service he is giving to me to lighten my load (pun intended).  When I have taught (and taught and guided) my kids on how to load and unload the dishwasher, I am teaching them a basic  skill and responsibility (just like folding towels--help me!).

My moral of the story, I'll just continue my run of staying out of the kitchen after dinner as I consider the likelihood that Dusty is probably writing his own Marriage Prerequisite post about me and my "issue" with dishwashers.