Who's the Boss?

Being a reader that I am, I am always being met by stories that I find so fascinating and are of worth sharing. The question 'who's the boss?' is often asked in marriage life, and in a family generally. But the following story taken from the magazine SIGNS presents a different perspective of how a person becomes a boss in his/her life and on other people's lives. It's worth reading on, I am telling you, and the lessons are great enough to be learning from it.

My sisters and I grew up in a wealthy town outside of New York City. Our friends were all privileged, as were we. My parents, however, hailed from rural Georgia and held very conservative values. Both had worked at paying jobs beginning when they were barely in their teens. While in high school, my mother earned the money for her first car. Daddy ‘earned his keep’ by picking cotton.

“As an adult, He earned a PhD in Organic Chemistry and headed up research at a large pharmaceutical concern. Nevertheless, he mowed the yard on weekends, changed the oil in the cars when needed, and shined the children’s shoes ever Sunday evening. My parents felt that running the household was a family concern, and as such, was an opportunity to teach. They expected my sisters and me to do the household chores (for which we were never paid) and take an outside jobs at appropriate ages. We began babysitting around age ten. At age fourteen we all held jobs after school and on weekends.

“We were also expected to work while we went to college—part time during the school year and full time over the summer. As a result, I paid all of my college tuition bills and then put myself through graduate school, earning a Master’s degree.

“Needless to say, none of us were ever given cars. Daddy always says that no one was entitled to own a car, and if we wanted to have cars, we could buy them for ourselves.

“After graduate school, I became a financial advisor. I was on my own, but Daddy still called daily to chat.

“One afternoon when he called, I said, ‘Daddy, I just found out that my secretary’s father gave her a Mercedes-Benz when she graduated college last year. He also schedules her maintenance and gives the dealer his credit card so that all she has to do is show up and hand over the keys. What do you think about that?’

“Well’ he said, ‘I think that’s why she’s the secretary and you’re the boss.’

“Daddy’s been gone nine years now, and every day when I do the best I can at whatever I am doing, I do it in his honor. Growing up, I didn’t understand why I had to suffer under such strict parents. Now I’m grateful.”