[jasonfarnon]

Maybe things have changed but finances mostly forced my kids and those in the neighborhood to grow up this way. No dishwasher, bidet (we're in the US anyway), electric toothbrush, and definitely cooked all meals. Maybe takeout pizza or chinese every couple months? Is this really so outlandish to you?

[wartywhoa23]

Well, if everyone would find living the old way perfectly normal, as you and me do, how would the big guys get their ROI and become even bigger?

One does not simply invest in something new without any effort to make the old look medievally obscurant.

[BeetleB]

No - it was the same with us (OK, we had a dishwasher, but for much of my adult life I didn't).

The key is this:

> finances mostly forced

For a while I even hand washed when I did have a dishwasher. Then I realized that was a mistake and I started utilizing it (the dishwasher uses less water, and less energy to heat the water compared to my running the tap on warm).

The point is that after N kids, it stops being therapeutic and merely something you just have to do, and you're happy if you can afford a way not to do it.