Some men do the dishes. I do, and it probably stems from my upbringing. I am the oldest of nine children, and six of us were already out of diapers (the old cloth kind that you washed) by the time my mom got her first real washing machine.

She worked way too hard, but one of the tasks she did not have to worry about was cleaning up after dinner. I organized myself and the next three in line into a KP detail. We had four rotating tasks: clear and clean the table and floor, wash the dishes, dry the dishes, and put everything away. As soon a dinner was over we jumped to it and the kitchen was spic and span in probably about 20 minutes.

If I am in a kitchen with a cook I am quick to jump on and wash any pots, pans, or utensils that have been used, and by the time the meal is prepared 90 percent of the cleanup is done.

That tendency paid off for me in college. I worked on weekends in one of the dorm cafeterias that served 1500 students. Hours were generally hard to come by, but they kept me on between meals to wash the pots and pans.