Oh god my mother does this too! Drove me MAD over christmas when I was very ill and tired and had to keep re-washing dishes & cutlery she had supposedly 'washed'. Her method is to pile everything into the sink, squirt in a LOAD of washing up liquid, swirl the dish cloth about a few times whilst RATTLING the life out of everything in the ceramic sink (we have a lot of breakages with her!) then pluck them out and pile them all precariously on the ceramic draning board. 9 times out of 10 there is food still encrusted on the cutlery, she swills the glasses in the slimey water and they are not clean. Nothing gets an individual wash so all the tea cups are stained from the tea, pots still have food stuck to the bottom.
I find it way less stressful to just wash them myself really. I have my failproof method -
oragnise the dishes to be washed on the counter roughly in order of how they will be washed - glasses & cups nearest me, pots furthest away.
Make sure the sink and draning board are clean
Start running water into the sink with the washing up liquid, have tap at a slow flow, start washing the glasses, washing them thoroughly in the soapy water, then rinse under the still running hot water,
Continue with cups, plates, bowls, cutlery washing each one individually
Finish with the dirtiest pots and pans. Using fresh soapy water if necessary.
Use a clean teatowel (only use them for one drying up session) and dry everything except glasses & put away. I only dab the rim of the glass on the towel - they're usually air dried by the time the rest is done - that way they are smear free.
It's not exactly rocket science & you get lovely CLEAN dishes every time 