Tuesday, July 7, 2009

the best job in the world

...
POSITION: Mom

JOB DESCRIPTION:
  • Long term, team players needed, for challenging, permanent work in an often chaotic environment.
  • Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call.
  • Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities.
  • Travel expenses not reimbursed.
  • Extensive courier duties also required.
RESPONSIBILITIES:

The rest of your life...
  • Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily, until someone needs $5.
  • Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly.
  • Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf.
  • Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and stuck zippers.
  • Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and coordinate production of multiple homework projects.
  • Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings for clients of all ages and mental outlooks.
  • Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next.
  • Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated devices.
  • Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.
  • Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end product.
  • Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and janitorial work throughout the facility.
POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION:

None.
Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE:

None required unfortunately.
On-the-job-training offered on a continually exhausting basis.

WAGES AND COMPENSATION:

You pay them!
  • Offering frequent raises an bonuses.
  • A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because of the assumption that college will help them become financially independent.
  • When you die, you give them whatever is left.
The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.

BENEFITS:

While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered; this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth, unconditional love, and free hugs and kisses for life, if you play your cards right.

** AND A FOOTNOTE: THERE IS NO RETIREMENT .... EVER!!!!

When I saw this, I thought of my daughter, Danielle. She's 21 and has had nanny type jobs for the past three summers. The more she handles this type of responsibility and the more she understands what her mother and father have done for her, she questions why anyone would want to be a mother (or father).

I tell her that she won't quite understand it fully until she, herself, is a mother. I try to explain that a child brings more joy than hardship; that they are gifts from God and bless the lives of his or her parents and when the time is right, she will want a child. She's not so sure.

And for me... I'm glad there's no retirement.

8 comments:

Momma Roar said...

I am the baby in my family, so I never had younger siblings to care for and I never did any babysitting as a teenager. When I had my first child, I was seriously wishing I had spent even a few hours with some children!!

When I had Q, I only felt comfortable with K-5th graders! :-)

Anonymous said...

THAT was GREAT!

-FringeGirl

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the laugh! That was a good one!

J-ME said...

How true, but it's the best job in the world! I'm so glad God allowed me to experience it.

Thanks for visiting my blog - as for chippie's name.... I'm thinking Kirby!

Mary@notbefore7 said...

It is always more pleasurable when it is your own kids. When the time is right she'll realize it :)

I babysat and was a nanny most summers. It was never the same - you don't love them like their mom and dad do.

MightyMom said...

well, she could read my 10 things I get from having snks post :-)

kids are fabulous. I know there are women with no desire to become mothers...they are enigmas to me.

Anonymous said...

this made me laugh because it's so true. I still think good moms are priceless. Your kids are getting old enough to really start appreciating mom and dad as they begin their own adventures in the real world.

Thanks for your comments on my blog.

Jamey said...

That was great....and oh so true!! It's by far my favorite job of all the ones I've had :)