Hello all,
I've been in the UK 3mo. now after marrying a British gal and I love her to death...
But there are a number of daily household related things she does that absolutely
drive me crazy. Rinsing, or should I say lack there of, dishes being one of them.
Why??? Does she do it? I've tried confronting her in a nice way that soap left on
dishes is not only unsafe, but just plain weird. Not to mention she insists on leaving
a plastic wash basin in the sink, so the dishes don't actually touch the inside because
she is convinced that it is actually more sanitary.
It's a strange ritual really when she does them. The basin fills up with dishes and when
you're in the kitchen making diner or cleaning etc...it seems to collect all the muck from
crumbs, dish towel residue, and anything else that falls into the pool of fifth. Then when it's time for me to do dishes, I have to empty the sludge and fill up the basin. I've made it clear to her that I rinse...but to do that? with the tap running due to space? only the smaller dishes like cups and silverware can actually get a full rinse. Under no circumstances am I allowed to take the basin out because of her said sanitary application. So??? If I go and try to rinse the bigger items like pots there is not enough clearance to properly get all the soap off without accidently dragging it into the basin which eventually just overflows anyway.
I find all of this excruciatingly weird. The first time I had dinner at her Mom's I noticed
her mother did exactly the same thing. Infact I've noticed that just about everyone I seem
to come into contact with washes dishes like this. Functionally it makes no sense.
One thing I noticed on a "Fairy" TV commercial was someone washing dishes without rinsing. And then it suddenly hit me. But then again, I have met (some) people who have
no idea what I'm talking about because they rinse.
Is this a cultural thing? I'm totally confused, and it's got to the point where I'm secretly
RE-washing dishes behind my wife's back. It seems that when I mention my concerns about this to my wife, she becomes very reactionary and thinks that I'm trying to imply that she's unkempt.
Does anyone out there have any ideas on how to handle this?