{"id":10531,"date":"2026-02-14T16:18:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T16:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/?p=10531"},"modified":"2026-02-14T16:18:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T16:18:38","slug":"i-spent-my-life-working-hard-so-she-wouldnt-have-to-but-i-forgot-to-teach-her-that-all-work-has-dignity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/?p=10531","title":{"rendered":"I spent my life working hard so she wouldn&#8217;t have to, but I forgot to teach her that all work has dignity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-path-to-node=\"2\">I\u2019m Janine, and I\u2019ve spent my entire life working in a school kitchen. It was hard, manual work that left me exhausted every day, but it put food on the table and a roof over my children\u2019s heads. Because I lived through that struggle, I wanted something more for my daughter\u2014a &#8220;real career&#8221; with stability and prospects.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3\">So, when she told me she was engaged to a janitor, I panicked. I told her (too bluntly) that she should think about her future and find someone with a better path. She was furious, calling me classist and judgmental. We didn\u2019t speak for days.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"4\">The turning point came when they stayed over after a family dinner. I couldn&#8217;t sleep and ended up overhearing them in the guest room. I heard her fianc\u00e9 say, \u201cYour mom worked in a school kitchen her whole life and thinks my work isn\u2019t respectable?\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\">My stomach dropped. Hearing it out loud made me realize how hypocritical I sounded. I wasn&#8217;t looking down on him; I was projecting my own exhaustion and the hardships of my own life onto her. I thought I was protecting her, but I was actually disrespecting the very kind of honest work that raised her. I realize now that stability isn&#8217;t just about a job title\u2014it&#8217;s about the person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m Janine, and I\u2019ve spent my entire life working in a school kitchen. It was hard, manual work that left me exhausted every day, but it put food on the &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10532,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,24,22,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-co-worker","category-family","category-inspiration","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10531"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10533,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10531\/revisions\/10533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}