Household Using Dishwasher as Drying Rack Also Using Eldest Sibling as Emotional Punching Bag

This is not much different from an unpaid internship. 

April 1, 2021

By: Julia Zhen

DURHAM, NC – In the Chen household, the dishwasher is strictly used as a drying rack for hand washed dishes. The twist? The oldest daughter, 19 year-old Ella Chen, is constantly bearing the emotional labor for her whole family. 

“Before we moved to America,” explains matriarch, Mary Chen, “we were accustomed to hand washing dishes. Saves water. When we moved into our first home with a dishwasher, we saw it as the most magnificent drying rack. Why would you need a machine to wash the dishes? I was born with these two hands. My family was all born with two hands. I pulled myself out of a famine with these two hands. I can wash the dishes with these two hands. Simple.”

Mary’s husband, Jeffrey Chen, went on to share that they had Ella in 2001, and twins Michael and David in 2006. 

“When Ella was little, she was like our little diary. So cute and comforting. If I had a bad day at work, I’d tell Ella all about it, and she would just say all these adorable little toddler things that would brighten my day. As she got older, Mary and I just got used to having Ella as our little therapist, and she’s quite good at it too. During an exercise, she locked us in a classroom, and her teacher was there. We were forced to set aside our 45 day argument to talk to the teacher about Ella’s grades. We were so elated, we didn’t even know it was a parent-teacher conference until the end.”

Twins, David and Michael who are both 14, spoke in unison to share how much emotional labor Ella actually burdens for them too. 

“Whenever we play a really bad round of Fortnite, we go into Ella’s room and scream at the top of our lungs. Whenever we play a wrong note on the piano when we’re practicing, we go up to Ella’s room and slam the door 6 times. When mom makes us eat leftovers, we sit in Ella’s lap and cry until someone gives us McDonald’s.”

Ella is going off to college tomorrow, and her family actually doesn’t know. She says she’s looking forward to the new found freedom and hopes that her family will not notice she’s gone because she is setting a timer for the dishwasher to start running at 9am.