The Dish Fairy goes on strike
The Dish Fairy is on strike.
Usually the Dish Fairy comes to our house at about 5:30 or 6 a.m. when she unloads and puts away the clean dishes from the dishwasher, and puts in the dirty ones.
First let me say that although my sweet husband does a number of chores around the house, dishwashing isn’t among his talents.
After a particularly prolific week in which both kitchen sinks seemed to sprout dishes while I was at work, I asked my husband how often he thought I turned on the dishwasher.
“Once or twice a week,” he answered.
“It’s almost every day,” I retorted.
But how would he know? The Dish Fairy comes before he’s awake, and since we normally use the same set of everyday Fiesta Ware plates and utensils, bowls, pots and pans, what winds up in the sink looks pretty much the same.
I thought it was a generational thing: my husband was raised in the Deep South more than 60 years ago when his mother had household help. Let me explain that term unknown to many young people today.
Women were paid to come in and wash dishes, sometimes cook, help dust, do the laundry, and maybe even iron.
(I know I should explain the term “iron,” but Google the word as a verb.)
Well anyway, back to my supposition. In light of my husband’s upbringing as a male in a world where the women of the home did most everything, it was understandable that my sweetie of 41 years (I was 4 when we got married) might not realize dishes didn’t magically wash and put themselves away. It’s the same way many men believe in the magic dinner and party: food miraculously appears without anyone doing the planning, shopping and preparation – and the cleanup.
But it seems dish blindness also runs in the family, in a way. As an experiment, our daughter, Meredith, who didn’t have a dishwasher at the time, washed only the plates and bowls she used for several days.
Although her husband, Frederick, sometimes takes a turn washing up, sure enough, more dishes “grew” in one side of the sink and then filled up the other.
The Dish Fairy must have been on vacation somewhere other than Charleston, S.C., where they live. Those dishes waited patiently for Meredith to deal with them.
Her husband installed a dishwasher since then.
