The Good Thing About My Dishwasher Breaking Down

I've talked before about our terrible luck with household appliances and my great disdain for GE brand appliances, in particular. We've had trouble off and on with our GE Profile dishwasher. Right now, it's totally out of commission. We are weighing our options - do we try to put a band-aid fix on it for now or spend the money to buy a new one. Anyway, since the dishwasher has been on the fritz, the chore of doing our nightly dinner dishes has been bestowed upon our 16 year old daughter, Shelby. This honor was not one that she was happy to receive. We've always had a dishwasher so my kids have never really had to hand-wash dishes very often.

After a couple days, Shelby quit complaining and accepted her duty. She's found her groove and now the task doesn't really take all that much time. I decided to join her and help out. Sometimes she washes and I dry, and sometimes vice versa; we trade off. We eat dinner at home as a family at least five nights per week. So, on those nights, for a good twenty minutes, my daughter and I stand side-by-side at the kitchen sink, washing, drying, and putting away dishes. And you know what? That's twenty minutes of her undivided attention that I get. We talk, laugh, gossip, and actually have a good time.

And, that is the only good thing about my dishwasher breaking down!