It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are in your relationship, or how much or little you do outside of this highly detested chore, the infamous battle over who’s washing the dishes is bound to come up at some point during your “living together,” “marital,” or “shacked up” relationship (I know the first and last expressions are virtually the same, but I like saying shacked up for some reason). You see in this day and age when both our sexes are virtually considered “equal,” the responsibility of turning on the faucet y ponerse a lavar los trastes is no longer just considered “women’s work.”
Sorry guys, but that’s the world we live in.
And I know many of you are probably thinking why bother with washing dishes by hand if there are those magical little things called dishwashers nowadays, my younger brother tells me this all the time, but in our household we don’t have a dishwasher. We had one until we unplugged it from the wall, dragged it across our kitchen and living room floors, and sat it outside for a few days, okay several days, before we gave it away. Neither one of us grew up on dishwashers and while we are familiar now with how to use one, it stills seems a little contraindios to us.
So usually the argument goes like this: Are you going to wash the dishes? No, are you? No, I worked all day and don’t want to wash the dishes. Well I washed the dishes the last several times. And what’s wrong with that? Nothing, but when was the last time you scrubbed the toilet, cleaned the bathtub, washed all the clothes, or even cooked anything for yourself? I work all day! So do I… just because it’s housework doesn’t mean it’s not work. Lava los trastes. Tu lavalos. We can go on like this for a while… a good long while, until finally one or the other concedes and just washes the damn dishes.
In reality, it’s not that big of a deal at all. It takes just a couple of minutes to do, and in an ideal world, I guess, either party would just take turns doing this chore, until one of the kids was old enough to do it all of the time. I knew I wanted more kids for a reason! I say that knowing completely well we will continue battling it out over who’s going to wash the dishes, because, well, part of having another able bodied, responsible adult in the household is that: having someone to argue with about the most menial of tasks, someone else who is just as committed and responsible for caring about the little things that we don’t have a choice but to do.
In our case, por ese versito we each had to repeat “for better or for worse, as long as we both shall live.”
DISCLAIMER: No actual ‘trastes’ were harmed in the writing of this blog.
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