The U.S. Department of Labor states that Labor Day is a “yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” My son likes to joke that on a day we celebrate work, we don’t have to do it.
Labor Day should be a time we celebrate those workers who are often overlooked, but, without them, the wheels of progress would feel like they were running in mud. Here’s just a few of those sometimes slighted workers.
The Teenage Employee. Most of us had an outside-the-house job when we were teens. We remember our first step into the adult world where we were paid for doing something, i.e., watching little kids.
For all of you who babysat back in the day, you deserve a medal. You watched other people’s children for 50 cents an hour and not only made sure they were alive when the parents got home, usually drunk, but you entertained them, cleaned up the house and washed the dishes without the benefit of late-night television. The only company you had after the kids went to bed was an AM radio station with a signal that faded in and out.
Today’s babysitters charge much more than two quarters an hour and they have 24-hour cable and Wi-Fi to keep them company. But the kids are still wild, the dishes still need to get finished and the parents are usually tipsy when they finally get home.
The Moms. So much has been written about all the chores stay-at-home moms do without pay that it’s caused a decades-long war with moms who work outside the home.
Ladies, it’s time to bury that hatchet and never pick it up again.
Women who work outside the home have the heartache of dropping their children off for someone else to hug and play with all day long. Women who stay home know they’ll never have the earning power, promotions and raises moms who work outside the home rack up.
Both have a giant pile of mismatched socks in the laundry room, both feel guilty about the choice they made and both do their best to balance jobs and their sanity.
The Dads. Same goes for dads. Those who have high-powered jobs and those with low-paying jobs face the loss of being away from their families for most of the day because they’re earning the best they can under the circumstances.
Especially underappreciated are the non-custodial parents who pay child support and don’t get to spend daily time with their children. They don’t get to tuck their kids in at night or see them in the mornings, but they still write that check every month.
Those-who-will-not-be-named workers. These folks have the jobs few of us would want to have – Porta-Potty workers are at the top of my list right up there with plumbers. They crawl underneath houses, empty septic tanks and deal with the smelliest messes you can imagine.
The sanitation workers. I’ve followed along behind a garbage truck before, and I couldn’t believe all the physical work these guys put in every day no matter the temperature or weather conditions.
They lift heavy garbage cans over their heads and dump them into the back of a sometimes moving truck. Most people will weigh a garbage can down as heavy as they can because they only want to make one trip to the curb.
I’m guilty. I seldom stop and think about who has to lift that garbage can I stuffed to the top with heavy broken toys and out-of-date canned goods.
This list could be five times longer, so the next time you see someone doing a job you wouldn’t want to do, take a minute and thank those workers.
Happy Labor Day to all those who keep this country running. You are appreciated.
This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.