Today is Family Day in Ontario. When Family Day was first implemented, it caused a great deal of confusion for employers, and there continues to be lack of clarity about what it means. Here is your Ontario Public Holiday Lesson...Ontario has 9 public holidays, Family Day is one of them. It is important to note what is NOT a public holiday in Ontario...Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, the first Monday in August and Remembrance Day. So imagine the horror for employees when Family Day was labelled a public holiday and employers suddenly realized, oh wait, we do not have to give the Monday in August. Now, I do not know about you and I say this as a skier, but I would far rather have a Monday off in August than in February. Some employers dropped the August Monday in favour of Family Day, and other employers sucked it up and provided both, effectively providing 10 days of holidays to their employees. If your company falls into this category, throw out a thank you to the management team.
The intent behind Family Day is admirable, any time that we can spend with our family is time well spent and it should be encouraged. I would love to say that I am spending the day baking cookies with my offspring, playing a few games and generally sharing in the goodwill that comes from a family unit. Alas, this is not my experience, although I seem to remember one year we did go skiing, although that outing was tempered by one of the kids needing surgery the week after...but I digress. Right now, I have 4 teenage boys moaning about the early hour (it is 11:30am) and certainly NOT agreeing to a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit, an 11 year old who is under the impression that in order to celebrate Family Day we must spend copious amounts of money, a husband at work and me...on my computer, blogging. The grocery shops are closed so it seems the teenagers are in danger of starving, despite there actually being...yanno, food in the house, it is about -45 degrees outside and no one wants to go skiing or even outside. The dog has been rather affectionate and seems to appreciate this whole idea of being a family...although it is possible that he just wants to be fed.
But you know what? I will take all of it...I like having a day off and being forced (ahem, I meant being allowed) to spend time with my family in all its various forms. We were not all running out the house this morning on our way to work and school, it is all very relaxed. No one is actually starving, the furnace works and we are warm. It is all good.
The intent behind Family Day is admirable, any time that we can spend with our family is time well spent and it should be encouraged. I would love to say that I am spending the day baking cookies with my offspring, playing a few games and generally sharing in the goodwill that comes from a family unit. Alas, this is not my experience, although I seem to remember one year we did go skiing, although that outing was tempered by one of the kids needing surgery the week after...but I digress. Right now, I have 4 teenage boys moaning about the early hour (it is 11:30am) and certainly NOT agreeing to a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit, an 11 year old who is under the impression that in order to celebrate Family Day we must spend copious amounts of money, a husband at work and me...on my computer, blogging. The grocery shops are closed so it seems the teenagers are in danger of starving, despite there actually being...yanno, food in the house, it is about -45 degrees outside and no one wants to go skiing or even outside. The dog has been rather affectionate and seems to appreciate this whole idea of being a family...although it is possible that he just wants to be fed.
But you know what? I will take all of it...I like having a day off and being forced (ahem, I meant being allowed) to spend time with my family in all its various forms. We were not all running out the house this morning on our way to work and school, it is all very relaxed. No one is actually starving, the furnace works and we are warm. It is all good.
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