The Boys Learn About Hard Work

My two boys got to know Manual Labor this weekend. They learned the hard way that he's NOT the new starting pitcher for the Ranger's Baseball Team.

The boys were hired out to help dig a new pond for my sister and her husband. My sister, a/k/a The Most Extreme Aunt, is the kind of aunt you hit your knees and PRAY for. She's generous and kind and, best of all (according to unemployed teenagers everywhere) she PAYS REALLY, REALLY WELL.

So, the boys left the house all excited about the double fun of getting to dig a big ol' hole and actually getting PAID to do it. At least the YOUNGEST one was excited about the digging, the OLDEST wasn't that keen on the digging, but the PAYING part sure did put a spring in his step.

They returned home about 9 hours later, filthy, sunburned and tired, but ROLLING in the money. I'm not going to say exactly how MUCH Auntie Extreme paid them, because you'd just track her down and start offering to do all types of chores for MUCH less money, and really, my boys need all the income they can get....we DO hope to retire someday and getting these kids off the Gravy Train is definitely at the top of our To Do List.

Let's just say, the boys EACH came home, carrying in their pockets, a little less than we spend on groceries for the entire week. Remember, we have TWO boys, ages 16 and 20, who are, shall we say, Good Eaters? Uh huh...you're getting the idea, aren't you?

Apparently they learned a couple of lessons from their physical labor, one of them being that if you hit a water pipe not once, but TWICE with a shovel, it's liable to break. But, I think they also came home with a new appreciation of what some people have to do to earn a living.

When Roger started out in the working world, his first summer job involved digging ditches. He would work all day long, in the hot Texas summer sun, with minimal breaks, travelling from job to job in a truck with no air conditioning. He did all this, and happily, too, for the current minimum wage.

Now, while I KNOW the boys worked hard, they did so in a fairly shaded area, with Auntie Extreme doling out the cold bottled water and sunscreen, and they took a leisurely 45 minute lunch to enjoy all the pizza they could eat, ALSO provided by Auntie Extreme. (Auntie Extreme even called several times that night and the next day to check on how the boys were feeling, something I'm fairly certain MOST employers DON'T do.)

Still, the boys DO know how fortunate they are and how relatively easy they have it, as evidenced by the youngest telling his father how very much he appreciated how hard his daddy had to work during those ditch-digging summers.

You should have seen the expression on his face when his Daddy informed him that he used to work a 9 hour day and come home with a grand total of approximately $10.00 BEFORE TAXES.

I swear to you, at that very minute, that boy began building a mental shrine to his Daddy, and there ain't nothing wrong with that, is there?