Thanks, Callie. My mom was so disppointed to find when her mother-in-law died, that every nice thing she bought her over our years of travel in Europe beautifully put away in drawers and untouched. A number of years ago my neices and nephews consisted of two teens and six children under 7 years of age. Mom realized that they were using sippy cups for too long, and then graduated to plastic. She got me in tow and she started buying inexpensive glass stemware at yard sales (the family is too big for the china and crystal .... by the way, the china is pretty close to complete, in spite of weekly use by children and many moves. Crystal is still there, but really down). At any rate, the stemmed glasses come out periodically when Mom feels the kids need a lesson or two that their two-career families don't really have time for.
I'm just one who loves to cook and entertain, hates to houseclean in general (don't get me wrong, I have the cleanest house of all my freinds who cannot afford help .... just because I do it, doesn't mean I enjoy it). THEREFORE anyone who cleans gets my vote, so my stuff is all cleanable by any way you care to do it (over the years, most complaints about ruined stuff comes from family trying to clean it, not cook in it). Cooking, though .... must say, not many people get a chance to ruin my cookware. If they're cooking, they're doing it under my supervision, or are better at what they do than I am. I still wouldn't own a super expensive pot/pan, but really, that's just my budget and debt comfort level (which is zero). But, like all of us, I do have one thing I insist on, and tell people when they come to stay. FILL THE KETTLE FROM THE CULLIGAN SPOUT. No unfiltered water in the kettle, please. We have are regular water treated as well, but we live on top of lead mines, with very hard water. I'd have to replace my teakettle every few months if it was filled from the regular tap, and tea looks gross when made from tap water. One morning I saw Mom drinking a cup of tea and told her, "Please don't tell me you made that cup of tea from my kettle." No, she'd just poured water into a cup and nuked it. Oh, dear, Mom. I rent the purification by the month, not by the gallon. Please use the good water. I'm not particularly attached to my teakettle, just hate trying to replace it (lots of teakettles don't work well on glass-top electrics) and hate what hot beverages look and taste like once that film of mettalic stuff is in the kettle! So we all have our little peeves.