In 1990, Family Day was established as a holiday in Alberta.
It was to be the third Monday in February for hard-working Albertans to have more valuable time with their families. Other provinces followed suit and Saskatchewan was one of them.
What does Family Day mean to everyone? If this day is deemed a dedicated day for family, then why are there still stores open?
For many years, I worked in retail, having to work every other weekend and having to close the store one night a week, which did not leave much time for family events.
I worked many of these holidays so other staff could have the holidays off, as the bosses were not going to close the store.
The boss would not work them, which did not set an example for the people who had to work. After all, these people all had families as well.
On Family Day, stores should be closed to allow families to have what the holiday is meant to be, for family.
It has only been in recent years that our family can actually enjoy the day together, but I had to quit retail in order to do that.
I notice that many communities hold family events on this day, or they do it the following weekend.
But what does it mean to you? Is it just another day to do groceries as you felt there was not enough time during the week to get it done? Or is it a day to get some chores done around the house, that you had planned to do weeks ago?
This day I do not believe was meant for these things.
I plan to go and ride my horse. Although my husband is not a horse guy, he does support me in a huge way when it comes to my horse, and he offered to be the driver. My horse is an hour and a half away, and it usually ends up being a day out.
This time my husband said, "It is Family Day, and I would like to spend the day as a family." I was shocked, as he usually works on Mondays, as we keep Sundays for our family.
Our daughter has a pony that she loves to spoil, and we support her with this as well. And we get to visit a great friend.
But shouldn’t Family Day be every week?
Back in the day, Sundays were deemed a day of rest and family spent time together. Stores opened on this day of rest and interfered with needed family time.
Many companies will not hire a person that tells them they will not work Sundays. Most applications say a person must be available to work weekends and evenings.
If you choose to work, that is your choice, but it should not be demanded from an employer that you need to work on Sundays because a person wants time with their family. If this is the case, then the employer should work all the Sundays, but most of them do not.
There is so much turmoil in the world and family values are no longer a priority, as one needs to work or is told they have to.
We need to go back to the good old days, when we did not have to worry about being called into work on Sundays. The stores should be closed.
We did our groceries on a Saturday, we filled our vehicles with fuel, bought all that was needed, and we never did without because the stores were closed on this day of rest.
Call me old fashioned, but the older I get the more I long for the days when things were simpler and family time was valued.
On these days that we spend with family, we make memories, and memories cannot be replaced for all the money in the world.
Make time for family, make memories, because tomorrow is not promised.
