There are some things that are must-haves in my life that my mother didn’t grow up with.  One of these items is the all important dishwasher!  When Mother was a child, she was the dishwasher.  Well not right off the bat as she had to be able to wash the dishes, and dry them.  Although she used to talk about kneeling on a chair to reach the sink.

it’s almost child labor by today’s standards, but that was the norm back then.  I guess in a way it was not just discipline and helping out with household duties, but also preparation for her adult years.

I recall  doing dishes as a child, and somewhere along the way I got used to this thing called a dishwasher.  Does this make me softer than my mother?  Perhaps, but in a pinch I can do the dishes by hand.  And yes this includes drying them!  I prefer not to, partially because of lupus and partially because it’s not my favorite thing to do.  Beloved, on the other hand, loves to wash the dishes by hand, he claims he knows they are clean is way.  I counter that with the little fact that the dishwasher gets hem cleaner because it can tolerate hotter water than his delicate hands.

where do you come down on the dish debate?  By hand or machine?  Should children learn this skill or is it an art better left to history?