My wife seems to think its a good idea to pour water on the windsheild to defrost it in the morning. It doesn't get all that cold out in California so I wasnt so worried about cracking the windshield. Is this a good idea?

 

Hot water + cold glass anything = shatter

heated air starts cold and increases in temp gradually, vs trowing boiling water on your windshield

 

and my objection is that the water is likely to run onto the car...
if it is not chemical free it can etch the clear coat if it sits there for very long.
how about using paper towels and glass cleaner?

 

How cold you talking about? Below freezing? If it's only a few degrees below freezing, why not just get in, start the car, A/C on (set to windshield defrost), heat on hot, fan on high, put on recirc for the first minute or so and use your windshield washers (UNLESS you guys don't use the stuff that is meant for winter (ie, with anti-freeze). If it's freezing, you should be using winter washer fluid anyway.
I don't like the idea of pouring water all over the windshield. At least the water in your washer will be at the same temp as your windshield.

 

I also put the sun visors down.

 

When I was 12 or so, my mom was in a hurry to get us to school (we were late). The window was iced over so my mom thought a nice quick way to defrost would be to pour warm water on the windshield.

As soon as the water hit the windshield (was luke warm, maybe room temp water, not really hot), there was a GIANT single crack from the bottom corner of the driver side to the top corner of the passenger side. My mom started crying she was so bummed.

Oh my dad had a fit haha. I learned a good lesson that day!