Tonight as he was emptying the dishwasher, my son tenatively and politely said to me - Mom, you know, when I load the dishwasher I group the silverware, forks in one part of the basket, spoons in another, etc., so that it is easier to put them away. (With the hidden message - you should do that too.) I agreed that it makes sense (which it does) and I'd try to remember to do that. I said, "I never thought of it." I watched him shake his head in bafflement and sort of turn away, and could see his mouth moving as he said to himself - She never thought of it - she never thought of it.

Ah well - live long enough and hopefully one learns.

By Texannie on Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 10:49 pm:

Gee..never thought of it either! LOL

By Kate on Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 11:07 pm:

That's okay, Ginny, I don't necessarily agree it's better anyway! If you mix them up I think they get cleaner because they can't 'nest' together. Spoons especially can come thru the cycle with food still stuck on them if they 'spoon other spoons'.

By Bobbie on Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 11:28 pm:

I do the same thing. And it does make unloading the silverware a lot easier..

By Amy~moderator on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 12:48 am:

I agree with what Kate is saying, and I love the "spoon other spoons" description...ROFL

By Trina~moderator on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 06:52 am:

I'm happy if silverware makes it into the dishwasher. I don't care how it's arranged. It all comes out clean and that's all I care about! LOL! With two young kids I have more important things to worry about.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 07:33 am:

I had a kid put too many like things together the other day and one of the spoons didn't get clean. I tend to mix it all up so that "spoons don't spoon other spoons", too.

By Karen~moderator on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 07:51 am:

Ditto Kate and Amy! LOL DH suggested loading the flatware that way several years ago and my first reason for not doing so was they won't get clean. My second reason is I'm too lazy!

By Sue3 on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 08:43 am:

Ginny ,
My Dh does that also when he loads the dishwasher.I don`t though

By Momaroze on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 08:47 am:

LoL oh Ginny! Light bulb moment. Tell your son "thanks for the tip" LOL. Makes complete sense how could I have not figured that one out. Good one!

By Eve on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 09:27 am:

You know, Ginny, I never thought about this before either. I saw my Aunt seperating everything like that at Thanksgiving, and I was in shock. LOL! It doesn't take that much longer, does it? I still toss everything in all mixed up.

I do, however, put sharp knives point down in the center under the handle, so my DD doesn't grab them. She likes to help me put dishes away!

By Happynerdmom on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 10:18 am:

Ginny, I think you probably have a future engineer as a son!

By Kittycat_26 on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 11:19 am:

Maybe I'm a bit warped in the way I look at things but I think of it this way.

I can either stand at the dishwasher and sort dirty silverware or I can stand at the silverware drawer and sort clean silverware. What is the difference other than I would rather handle clean silverware over dirty?

By Ginny~moderator on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 12:01 pm:

Michelle - actually this is a Vet.Tech son; another is a lawyer and the third works for a delivery company and does consulting on lighting/engineering stuff. All three were raised by a woman whose screen saver at work and at home is "Efficiency is organized laziness", to which I have just added - "Don't recreate the wheel!"

Amanda, I hadn't thought of it, but you have a point there.

By Pamt on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 01:23 pm:

Well, how 'bout this one too...We had this discussion at Thanksgiving. Do you put your silverware in the dishwasher with the handles up or down? We do handles down, except for knives, so that the parts your mouth touches gets really clean. My brother's fiancee (not anymore--they got married yesterday in Hawaii ) does it the handle up way and had her doctor write a "prescription" that it was hazardous to one's health to do it any other way--LOL

By Dawnk777 on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 04:24 pm:

Kids put silverware handles up. I put it in handles down. Not something I'm going to be picky about. My mom had her way or the highway. It drove me nuts. I hope I'm not so hard on my kids. Everything had a certain place to go in the dishwasher. I have a certain way, but I do what I can to fill the dishwasher up and if that means something goes in a different place, then so be it.

By Kate on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 04:47 pm:

Handles up because even though I wash my hands before unloading the dishwasher, I do not want to touch the part that goes in your mouth with my hands. I figure any extra cleanliness the silverware has from being handle down is lost when I touch that mouth part with my hands. Besides, I'm always in a hurry and I know I'd manage to stab myself with even the forks!

By Trina~moderator on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 05:16 pm:

Kittycat 26, I'd rather sort clean silverware, too!

We put handles down because for some reason they don't clean well with the handles up.

We don't put sharp knives in the dishwasher at all. We hand wash/dry and put them away immediately. DD went through a stage where she explored the contents of the dishwasher on a regular basis.

By Happynerdmom on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 06:21 pm:

I prefer handles down, but my silverware has thin handles and they fall through the holes in the dishwasher-silverware-thingy...That's the technical term for it, I think :-)...so, I end up with a mixture...some up, some down.

By Txmomof2angels on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 10:34 pm:

i think it's too cute that your son takes the time to master a job like that. i thought most kids would just throw everything in to get it over with.

By Ginny~moderator on Friday, March 12, 2004 - 10:43 pm:

Dayna, this son is 36 and has lived on his own for several years, and has only been living wiht me (again) since last May. I would hope he would know how to take care of himself. I raised all three of them to be able to cook, sew on buttons and mend, do laundry, etc., on the theory that if they got into a relationship it would not be because they needed someone to do the housework.

My resident son is quite good about that, and is, among other things, an excellent cook. He does his own laundry, shares the household chores and, because the dog and cat are his, does ALL the vacuuming - that was a deal breaker when he moved in with me.