Dinner Parties

Since I retired and we moved into this house, which is perfect for entertaining,  I have had a significant number of dinner parties.  There was never much energy for that during my child rearing and working years;  most dinner parties happened at church.

Recently, Gerry wanted to invite two particular couples from his department, so we had a "faculty" party.  Now when I have a dinner party, I work very hard for everything to be just perfect, and perfectly delicious.    That involves planning, shopping, chopping, mixing, baking, preparing, cooking, cleaning, etc.  At the very least, it takes about two full days of preparation.  Since my kitchen overlooks the living room,  I like for the kitchen to be perfectly presentable, and so there are no cooking or preparation dishes or pots visible by the time the guests arrive.

Early on in our marriage, which we always wanted to be a partnership,  Gerry just naturally gravitated toward doing the clean-up, which seemed the fair and thoughtful thing to do.  I did not "train" him to do that.  He always did it naturally,  which of course, I have always appreciated.  I do notice, however, that when he starts to clear the plates when dinner guests are finished with their meal,  guests of our generation always react with shock and awe,  as if he is doing something absolutely monumental.   "Wow, can I take him home with me?"   All the signs clearly indicate that their husbands are not helping with the clean-up.   We do have a dishwasher, so a great deal of the cleaning means putting the food away, and the dishes in to the dishwasher.    They were doing so much oooing and ahhhing about him clearing the table, I'll admit that the thought did enter my head:  'Why, I've been doing dishes by hand while preparing for two days!"    But because it was him, it was worthy of great admiration.

He is an exceptionally good helper and husband, I'll be the first to admit.  Our daughter and her husband (twenty somethings)  do all kitchen work together, including the chopping and cooking.   So, I'm sure the surprise over Gerry is very much a generational thing.   It would make me very happy if all the other husbands of a certain generation would help their wives, too!

Come on, fellas, do your part, so that Gerry will not be such an anomaly!