Anonymous wrote:Maybe he's just being sensitive and thinking you're being overly critical of everything he does. Are you? Sounds like he has a hair up his butt about something and this was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
OP here. Sorry, not likely, I would think. I'm pretty laid back. DH is, by his own admission, very Type A, and has always told me that he likes how I'm much more of an uncritical and relaxed person than he is.
I don't think that every little thing is a symptom of something deeper. I chalk this whole dirty plate issue to how he was raised. Dishes at my IL's home are often a little crusty or dirty. They're more in the "throw crusty dishes haphazardly into the dishwasher, and if they come out still dirty, that's okay" philosophy. They're pretty awesome people, so I can deal with it when I'm at their house.
Sometimes a dirty dish is just a dirty dish, PP.