Who does the dishes?

So like many couples there is quite a bit of give and take when it comes to chores. I am a former house cleaner; during my high school years and shortly after I used to work for a company who sent me to the most amazing houses all around town to clean. Because of this I have come to enjoy cleaning and really just kind of do it out of habit. When I lived alone I did everything myself; the cooking, cleaning, laundry, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, dusting, and scrubbing. So when George and I moved in together I just naturally kept doing all the chores since I was not used to having someone help me and, as I said, I like to clean. There are weeks when I will work extra hours so I can come home early on Friday night so that I can come home and spend the whole night cleaning. How much of a dork am I?

So after 4 years together and quite a bit of pushing from George I finally reach out for help and usually get it. George wants to help me and usually feels guilty when he has not. The last time I asked him to do the dishes and he forgot he bought me flowers to apologize. How adorable is that?

In the last few weeks Sophia has moved in. She is a little OCD and she LOVES to clean, especially when she is stressed. In the three weeks she has been here she has polished my flat top stove to a sparkle shine, rearranged my pantry, and cleaned out my fridge. And if there are a few dishes in the sink when I go to bed, by morning they are in the dishwasher which is really nice. But she does not like to unload the dishwasher.

Now George had 3 days off this week and I asked him to unload the dishwasher. He told me no. Now he usually will tell me no as a joke and then do it. Well three days later he still did not do it and finally I realized, for once, he was serious. He said no because he did not want to unload the dishwasher. And I get that, as sometimes I just do not feel like doing it either.

Now I do all the laundry, vacuum, shampoo the carpet (with our dogs it is a regular chore) clean the kitchen, dust, sweep, and mop. George does the yard and the bathrooms. We share the dishes and the trash. And I do most of chores not because I feel like George will not do them but because I like to and he is adoringly grateful and constantly telling me how beautiful the house looks.

I don’t think Sophia should be doing our dishes even though she says she does not mind. George kind of has two clean freaks chicks living in his house. I don’t have the right to throw all the chores I do in Georges face to guilt him in to doing the dishes. I do them because I like them. So this all begs the question…who does the dishes?