It’s Our Responsibility To Teach Our Kids That All Jobs Are Respectable

Walang maganda sa pang-didiscriminate ng kapwa natin.

Jul 26, 2026

I know how challenging it can be to be a parent; that’s why I try not to judge other parents. Just the same, there are basic obligations that are expected of us in raising our children. Aside from providing their material needs, we are also expected to raise them to be good and responsible individuals. Those have to go hand-in-hand; we can’t just provide them material things and not guide them to be polite and fair. On the other hand, we also have no business raising children if we can’t provide for their necessities.

*Rafa’s drawing of himself and his cousin playing*

Having said that, at this age and time, I still get surprised that there are still children who are not taught to be respectful. I mean, basic respect for the people around them.

I have another story. Well, more of Rafa’s story, which he told me last week. This involves the same child who kept insisting that his toy was fake. Not in a joking manner, but in a snobbish and boastful tone. This time, though, she used a person’s profession, uttered in a condescending tone (similar to name-calling) and seemingly meant to annoy Rafa.

Anyway, Rafa told me that he and the other boys were assigned by their teacher to sweep the floor and clean the pieces of paper that fell on the floor.

As Rafa was busily doing his chore, his classmate went up to him and said, “Ah, street sweeper haha!”

Then I asked Rafa how he answered back, and he said that he just ignored the girl. I said that it was just fine, but the next time the classmate does that again, he can opt for several ways to respond:

“Ok lang, good boy naman ako.” This is his preferred response because it was straight to the point and short.
“Ok lang, respectable naman ang street sweeper.”
“Ok lang, wala naman masama sa street sweeper. Hine-help nila tayo para clean yung surroundings natin.” This is Rafa’s least preferred response because he said it was too long.

While we were talking, I urged him to also use or say the response that being a street sweeper was a respectable job. I explained to Rafa that any job is respectable and decent as long as you are not doing any harm to anyone.

You can be a street sweeper, a policeman, a doctor, a carpenter; whatever you choose to be as long as it’s what you want and it’s not causing any damage, harm, or injury to yourself and to the people around you. There’s nothing wrong with your choices if you are a responsible person and you are using that as a means to support yourself or your loved ones.

Going back to the classmate who said that, I’m a bit shocked at where they learned to be discriminating against a person’s profession. To use that as a way to annoy another child must mean that they learned that somewhere. If not from the parents, then from other people who are close to them. That’s why we should always talk to our children, ask them to tell us stories or how their day went, and filter out things that may not do them any good.

No status in life will ever give us the right to be arrogant and look down on others.

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