ある乾杯
Toast to the Parents:
My mother recently posted this on our fridge – “Job Description for a Parent”.
Job Description: Long term, permanent work in a challenging environment, including weekend, evening, and occasional 24 hour shifts.
Responsibilities: The rest of your life – must be willing to be hated, until someone needs five dollars. Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, and an embarrassment the next. Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars, and coordinate homework and extracurricular schedules. Responsibilities also include janitorial duties.
Possibility for advancement and promotion: None. You must remain in the same position for years, without complaint.
Benefits: No health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options offered.
After the reading this job description, it perplexes me why anyone in their right mind would apply for such a position.
And, as you stand at the seventeen year milestone of your career as a parent, we, your children, have a message for you; though it may not seem apparent the majority of the time, we are in awe of your organizational skills, your culinary abilities, your patience, your wisdom, and your unconditional love.
So, on behalf of everyone in this graduating class, we are eternally grateful you took the job.
Lets raise a glass to toast the parents.
（This toast was made by Renee Reimer on May 29th, at Pavilion Ball Room, Sheraton Wall Centre, Vancouver, Canada; for a full version of the job description, see http://outsiderlooking.livejournal.com）