The Dreaded Dishwasher
Little Hart jumped into the car yesterday after school. Soo did Dad take you out to lunch for Valentines Day?
Where do these kids get these ideas anyway?
Me: No.
Little Hart: Dad's a bad husband (shaking her head).
Me: BUT...We did have breakfast together and he did unload the dishwasher, put away the dishes and load the stack of dishes that all three of you kids had so nicely stacked on the counter top for me.
Little Hart: Oh - ok he's a good husband.
Whew! Glad my marriage passed the test of my 13 year old. We never celebrate Valentines Day as I mentioned yesterday. When Little Hart first threw out the question, I thought, should I remind her that Dad had sent me two bouquets of flowers on Friday? Our dinner on Sunday? But instead I went with the DISHES!
It happens to be a pretty big deal around here, since loading the dishwasher has been one of the emotional scars that has carried over from Raylan's past relationships.
One morning five years ago he loaded the dishwasher, started it. I stupidly went over, opened it, moved something around to add a dish when all Hell broke loose. He turned around and said "You're just like my other wives, I try to do something nice for you and you have to go and correct it! See if I'll ever do that again." And with that he left. Needless to say I was in a tremendous amount of shock.
I called him a few minutes later.
Me: Um, here's the thing, I'm nothing like your exes, so please don't compare me to them again. It's not fair to me. Second, I wasn't trying to correct you just trying to add a dish that was in the other room."
Hubby: I'm sorry, I shouldn't have compared you to them. Sometimes things just set off a bad memory.
Me: Apparently.
He did stop being mad, but from then on he has done everyting, but load the dishwasher. Sometimes he will wash them by hand rather than put in the dishwasher. I really don't want to know all the dirty little details of the dishwasher trauma so I've just taken what he's given and never said a word since.
He's made comments to the kids about loading the dishwasher and women correcting his work so he wasn't going to do THAT again! They'll probably have some major trauma's of their own when they get married around this subject.
A few weeks ago, I noticed that he had added a couple of dishes to the dishwasher and I said nothing, Don't want to risk the positive direction we were headed in here. Then came yesterday. After breakfast, he walked our plates into the kitchen. A few minutes later, I heard a strange noise. Peaked in the kitchen and saw the whole unloading and loading of the dishwasher. Then he starts the cycle. Is this really happening ?
I glance over -- a plate sitting on the end table in the family room. I'm screaming inside: Don't get it! Don't load it-you can't wait another five years!
Instead, I tried to act all cool, no big deal here -- something I'm not very good at. Kissed my Hubby, added thanks for loading the dishwasher! Ahhh! Another bad memory bites the dust! Hopefully.