You know you’re officially an adult when you get excited about a new appliance.

My kids, on the other hand? They form deep, emotional attachments to these inanimate objects—which, let’s be honest, they don’t even use. I give daily reminders to put dirty dishes in the dishwasher, yet my daughter literally hugged the refrigerator the day it was hauled away, like she was saying goodbye to a lifelong friend.

We’ve lived in this house for more than 18 years. In that time, we’ve replaced the hot water heater twice, the washer twice, the dryer once, the microwave twice, and the fridge once. But the one appliance that absolutely refused to die?

The dishwasher.

And I wanted it to die so badly.

It took forever to run a cycle. FOREVER. I’d start it after dinner and by bedtime I’d still hear it chugging along like it was powering a small factory. Toward the end of last year, I started getting giddy when I heard the ominous “whirr… whirr…”—the sound of a motor clearly giving it everything it had left.

I kept asking my husband when it was finally going to die.

“It won’t,” he said. “It’s a KitchenAid.”

Sure enough, we came home from Christmas at my parents’ house to find a puddle of water in front of the dishwasher. And it hadn’t even been running.

It was so old we probably couldn’t find parts. Which meant only one thing:

Merry Christmas to me—we’re getting a new dishwasher!

Except… new things just aren’t like the old things.

You get used to how the old one works. You appreciate its quirks. And you don’t realize what you love about it until it’s gone—or replaced with something “better.” Quality-wise? They really don’t make them the same these days. Case in point: we had our new washer for four years.

And all the new features? Come on.

I need a dishwasher that washes dishes in an hour or less—not two to three hours. I need a washer with a regular cycle, a delicate cycle, automatic water levels, and temperature adjustments.

I do not need to control my appliances with my smartphone.

As for our brand-new dishwasher? We’re already on our first repair thanks to a broken part on the top rack. Sure, I could live with it—but it’s BRAND NEW, and they’re fixing it.

So now I find myself missing an appliance I spent years wishing would die.

Does this make me old?