from fun to chores

Where is it along life's path that we cross the unseen line where fun activities become chores?
For example, as a small child there was nothing I liked better than to help my grandmother with the dishes. To move up from drying and putting away to the rinsing station was quite the achievement. Yet by the time I reached washing status and it became chore at home to be done three times a week, suddenly there was little about washing the dishes I liked.
There are other things I wished for and longed to to growing up, but when the time arrived, I found it wasn't as wonderful as I had thought. The activity hadn't changed, but my perception of it certainly did!
The grown-up part of me says it's because my values of time changed as well as an increase in responsibilities, but sometimes I wonder. Could it be the repetition of the task, or realization it was "work" instead of a privilege?
Which leads me to ponder whether or not we truly understand what a privilege is. Take washing dishes, again. I don't have to boil my water. I simply open the tap and out comes clean, usable, hot water. And to top it off, it goes into a sink, not a portable tub that must be hauled from place to place. Not only that, but I also have dish soap that actually bubbles and helps clean. I don't have to use just water and elbow grease. How spoiled can I be?
I'm not exactly sure why washing dishes stopped being a status to attain, but I'm thinking perhaps I need to regain that child-like mentality and get on with it.