Megan’s Parents Split The Work

In my family, my dad does the turkey, dressing and stuffing by himself, from the chopping and sauteeing of the onions and cranberrings first thing in the morning to all the roasting and the preparation of both in-turkey and baked stuffing. My mom does the pies (though my sister and I have been known to assist) and all the sides. My mom -- which is undoubtedly where I get it from -- is very much a clean-as-you-go cook and my father is not, which (though we have a dishwasher) means that much of the cooking-related cleaning is done by her and most of it is finished before the turkey's out of the oven.

Since we generally eat off their wedding china, my mom is usually the one to set the table, whereas my role for many years is to "assist" my dad with carving the turkey, though that generally means holding the cutting board steady and arranging the meat (and, uh, parceling out the skin between him and me while my mom occasionally pops in to remind us that that is both fatty and disgusting). In recent years, we've mostly been a clear-your-own dish crowd (a task easier as the sheer volume of people has gotten smaller) though my mom takes point on actually washing the dishes because she's particular about the china and, when we were little, we weren't really allowed so it became a thing.

(If you can't tell, it's sort of been an object lesson for me in how to not object to how another person cleans, lest you get stuck doing all the cleaning and give everyone else a justification for not cleaning.) — Megan