POLL: Who cleans up after your family dinners - eg Christmas Dinner

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I was talking about this in RBP and decided I would make it into a topic.

Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 25 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: Who cleans up after your family dinners - eg Christmas Dinner (25 votes.)

Who cleans up after your family dinners - eg Christmas Dinner (Choose 1)
* The cleaning duty alternates - 20% (5)
* The women generally do the cleaning up - 40% (10)
* The men generally do the cleaning up - 4% (1)
* I don't go to family dinners. - 4% (1)
* Other - 32% (8)

 

You didn't have an option we all do to get it out of the way, the dishwasher gets loaded, the crystal and china washed by hand, rinsed, dried and put away. The pots etc not in the DW cleaned and and rinsed and left to drain. Done in about 30 mins and then on to coffee etc.

 

Genrally speaking the women tend to clean the table and either load the dishwasher or wash the dishes. The guys tend to get away with only having to dry any hand washed dishes.

 

It is far too hard to generalise on this. There is no general trend. Various people chip in to get it done and it is never based on gender, but usually actually more based on age. I find that the younger people in the family tend to be less inclined to leap up and clean up, whereas the older members are usually keen to get it done and out of the way.

 

Things end up in the dish washer after getting some initial cleaning which isn't much anyway (just to make sure nothing too bad ends there and to get rid of stuff that can be dealt with by just pouring water on the plate. Bigger stuff and what food remains... well, whoever grabs it takes it to the kitchen. It's more or less spontaneous.

 

Women generally since it's either at my sister or sister-in-law's house. Though we gave up on real plates, eating utensils and glasses 20 years ago. Paper and plastic all the way! Clean up takes about 10 minutes and a 30 gallon garbage bag.

 

I choose door number 1

 

Other, since I don'ät believe that there ever has been a real family Christmas dinner sort of thing - this year, like hte last one, I clean everything up because i am being all ny my ownsies.

 

We eat on paper plates which get thrown away. People tend to wash their own forks and knives and left on the drying rack. Then the host puts them back in the cupboards and drawers.

I once tried to help put stuff back but it was awkward. I keep having ask them if this goes here or not, and if I put it back in the wrong place, they have to go and undo it. Better leave it to the person who knows his own kitchen best.

 

Noone touches my dishes! Or IOW, whoever's house it is; it's called being an exceptional host.

 

@Ara, if you lived within my vicinity I would definatly be inviting you to our Christmas dinner. My family is very friendly and would make you feel at home.

Like I mentioned in RB, the women tend to do the cleaning up at our family dinners But right after writing that in the RB I phoned my mom and suggested paper plates this year.

We just have to make sure and burn the plates rather than let them sit outside because my mom lives in the bush and has a few local bears who would gladly eat our leftovers.

 

Well, yes, I agree with Felinoid, but if my mother in law grabs the dishes and charges into the kitchen with them, I'm not brave enough to try and stand in her way.

 

@HB, well if you offer, even with the knowledge that she will probably tell you that you don't have to, then it might be a good way to get some brownie points with the mother-n-law.

 

You forgot the most often used choice.

The Children

Until we turned 7 my siblings and I didn't have to help with the dishes. Now that we are between 19 and 23 we don't have to do dishes anymore.

 

When I'm a guest - I help with cleanup

When I'm hosting - sometimes me, sometimes others

 

Not me!

Seriously though...during any holiday meal, I usually eat so much that watching tv/sleep is about the only thing I can do afterwards. Mmmmm...sleep.

 

At my house or with my mom we all do the cleaning.
But at my in-laws the men are chased out of the kitchen. My mother in law uses this time for girl talk and we are sent off to the living room.

If we (my wife and I) are guests we always help wiht the cleanup.

 

Not me this year. I fled before the rest had finished.

 

I checked men because the children always do it, and we are all guys. We are around 14-20, so I guess you could call some of us men... but they are still called the children.

 

I do the cooking and most of the cleaning.


One of the choices wasn't "I do".