"Spite Dishes"--you may have played a few rounds.

[vixengrl]

This is a game we sometimes play in my house--and you might do it, too! All you need is a stack of dishes that need to be done by hand, and an informal schedule regarding who needs to do them.

Now, in my house, we always have dishes done by hand, and the minimum required number of players--two. We do dishes based on any number of criteria--from, "You cook it, I'll clean it," to "It's the weekend, you were at work and I wasn't, so I'm awake enough to do the dishes." We usually sort it out, but sometimes, just sometimes, a round of "spite dishes" gets played--and this is where the fun begins!

"Spite dishes" is the name for dishes that are left over when someone kind of starts to do the dishes, but then totally "forgets" to do a couple. Like the spaghetti pot that's so big it was left on the range. Or the frying pan that is nasty and encrusted with hamburger drippings frizzled into a black hardness. Or a toaster oven rack that is just "innocently" left in the oven to sit, all dirty and needful of a good wash, but oh, so "forgotten". As the quotation marks imply--these dishes weren't necessarily "forgotten" at all--they were left, sometimes even soaking in warm, soapy water, for spite. Until morning, when the other party simply must address them, or until whenever in the future. I understand that in particularly fierce "spite dish" struggles, whole Tupperware containers and lids have been thrown in the rubbish. Sometimes spaghetti pots are filled with water to soak in, only to be returned to the range. The game has infinite variations. Points are scored when the other party washes a dish you have left for them--half points are granted when a person folds and washes a dish they left for you.

Anyone else play a game like this?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. You're hard up for something to do for thrills, aren't you??

I believe in automatic dishwashers. They sterilize the dishes and get them clean. Cleaner than you can get them washing them in hot tapwater.

The dishes can stack up even with a dishwasher there.

And it sounds like what you're indulging in is extremely immature, stupid, and inefficient.

If you sit around and anticipate pissing off your roomie by leaving dirty dishes around, you should be worrying about more important things, but you are not.


:wtf:

[LynzM]

10. Maybe I'm off base...

But I think perhaps the OP was being silly. :)

[canetoad]

2. I live alone

and wash the dishes on Fridays whether they need it or not, though lately I've been visiting my old Aunty on Friday so I need to have a back-up plan.

A few years back I shared with a friend who had a 15 yr old daughter who would burn to a crisp every saucepan she touched. I tried for a while leaving them to wallow in their own fetid soak-juices, hoping she would wash them. I always caved.

[XemaSab]

3. Elena

She was the best of roommates, she was the worst of roommates.

She was a little crazy, and somehow me and Kabe convinced her EVERY DAMN WEEK that it was her turn to clean the kitchen. EVERY DAMN WEEK. :D

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. H a ha ha!!

:rofl:

The hazards of losing your short term memory.....

[cemaphonic]

5. My version:

My wife hates doing dishes. Really really hates it. So if I don't do them, they're just not going to get done.

[MorningGlow]

6. I learned the hard way

When I was in grad school I hooked up with two AWFUL roommates. What made it even worse was they appeared normal on the surface and tried to behave like upper-class twits (but I knew where they came from and it weren't no upper-class nuttin'!)

Because I started grad school mid-year, they had already been living in the apartment for a whole semester (their third roommate tried to find a job, gave up, and went home). I was the new kid, and I wanted to be nice, so if I was doing dishes and one of the other roommates had left her dishes in the sink, I'd do them.

Yeahhhh.

Pretty soon they were both leaving ALL their dishes in the sink and EXPECTING me to do them. Er, no. So I learned how to do my dishes AROUND theirs (no easy feat). They got pretty pissed off, but within about a week or two they went back to doing their own dishes. After that nobody touched anybody else's dishes.

Asshats.

[Heidi]

7. There's a name for this??????

I thought it was just Call Me Wesley beng lazy. I had no idea there was spite involved.:rofl:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. My ex and I had Dirt Wars.

But that was more a manifestation of passive-aggressive behavior in which we would refuse to clean stuff up because we felt aggrieved because the other person failed to do the dishes or put stuff away or whatever. So we'd just leave the mess, waiting for the other person to break down and clean it up. Very mature. We are divorced now, of course.

[PassingFair]

9. My husband and I have a game called "Impasse".

The game board is the entire house.

[yellowcanine]

11. At our house we call it "the Lazy Slut game" as in "Who was the lazy slut who didn't clean up their

mess?" and it applies to a lot more than dishes.

[azmouse]

12. Since I do all the housework this has never been an issue.

I'd only be leaving the mess for myself to do later.
I've learned to rinse dishes before food dries on them so I don't have problems getting things clean.

I guess I'm just no fun. :(

[Manifestor_of_Light]

13. I call it "The Sink Fairy".

As in, "Gee, are you waiting for the Sink Fairy to come along and load the dishwasher?".


:rofl: