Friday... What does that actually mean???? Nothing in a family business

Well.. It is Friday.  I always make a big deal of it on my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts... but, it doesn't really mean anything to me.  I have worked weekends my whole life.  I have made peace with that... but as a young woman, I hated it.  All my friends partied like rockstars Friday and Saturday night... I did too, but paid the price at work on Saturday or Sunday or Saturday and Sunday. 
You see, I came from a Working Family.  I always joke, in my family you work for the family, or you get whacked.  Of course, that is a joke...
Working in a family business is a double edged sword.  If you have ever watched Duck Dynasty, you have a real feeling for how it goes.  Don't let anyone fool you... Redneck or not, all family businesses are the same. It is really a game of separating church and state.  You work together all day... agreeing, disagreeing, making decisions (often times not the one your Dad would make) and fighting for a new way of doing things.. or at least your way.  Then, at the end of the day, you sit down and eat dinner together.
This can start off strained, but by the time you swipe the last piece of the best meatloaf in the world, you have forgotten the days "capers" and get ready to try it again tomorrow.
I own my own business now.  My family business is home building and land development.... need I say more? 
I started a coffee shop and art gallery (www.juliescoffeeshop.com).  I can tell you, now that I am in the driver's seat, I have never had more respect for my Mom and Dad.  And, my stepdaughter is here with me working everytime she is with us.  I think, unknowingly, I have started my own Family Business?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! 
Respect for your parents is something you are taught when you are very young.  You periodically forget when you are sortof young and you embrace when you are the only one who thinks you are young.  I know I do.  At 48+ I can only feel a portion of the responsibility they must feel to their employees, the pressure of loans hanging over their heads, the fear that the houses we built would not sell and the anguish of some of them not selling for months.  Heck, all I worry about are cups of $2.00 coffee and some nights I don't sleep. 
So.... the thoughts that are in my head on this Friday are...  I don't feel so bad that I work all the time, I must not, because I started my own business that requires me to work all of the time. I am proud to have Amber work with me and I try to teach her everything I know, it is fun to have my stepdaughter with me.  I am thankful to have a husband who helps me every time I ask and who forgets how frustrated I can make him during the work day when he sits down to dinner with me at night... and I am grateful that my Mom and Dad taught me the value of a days work and the unconditional love of a family...no matter how rocky the work days can be.

Peace to you all... and keep working hard,
julie