If in doubt, wash it out!

The "Battle of the Dishes" continues. My seventeen-year-old is nothing, if not persistent. Her overly full academic life, now the bane of her existence, is the newest excuse for doing a poor job on her kitchen chores. This child is so much like her father, it's almost excrutiating to watch. She loads the dishwasher poorly, not rinsing anything and placing bowls and glasses on the bottom rack, then seems utterly surprised when everything comes out as dirty as when it went in. Then, of course, there are all the dishes she couldn't get fit in like bowls and pots, which just sit around the kitchen waiting for divine intervention to whisk them clean.

She always tells me that she plans on being rich and hiring someone to keep her home clean. This is mostly a fantasy, but hey, it's her dream to dream. Meanwhile, my advice to my darling daughter is, "If in doubt, wash it out!" The next time I clean the kitchen, I plan to photograph it and email the pictures to her. She's got to realize at some point that a clean kitchen actually involves surfaces you can actually eat off.