The original article was taken from academictips.org.

Please read the story below carefully and think about the implication of the last sentence in the forwarded article.


Father was a hardworking man who delivered bread as a living to support his wife and three children. He spent all his evenings after work attending classes, hoping to improve himself so that he could one day find a better paying job. Except for Sundays, Father hardly ate a meal together with his family. He worked and studied very hard because he wanted to provide his family with the best money could buy.

Whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.

The day came when the examination results were announced. To his joy, Father passed, and with distinctions too! Soon after, he was offered a good job as a senior supervisor which paid handsomely.

Like a dream come true, Father could now afford to provide his family with life’s little luxuries like nice clothing, fine food and vacation abroad.

However, the family still did not get to see father for most of the week. He continued to work very hard, hoping to be promoted to the position of manager. In fact, to make himself a worthily candidate for the promotion, he enrolled for another course in the open university.

Again, whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.

Father’s hard work paid off and he was promoted. Jubilantly, he decided to hire a maid to relieve his wife from her domestic tasks. He also felt that their three-room flat was no longer big enough, it would be nice for his family to be able to enjoy the facilities and comfort of a condominium. Having experienced the rewards of his hard work many times before, Father resolved to further his studies and work at being promoted again. The family still did not get to see much of him. In fact, sometimes Father had to work on Sundays entertaining clients. Again, whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.
As expected, Father’s hard work paid off again and he bought a beautiful condominium overlooking the coast of Singapore. On the first Sunday evening at their new home, Father declared to his family that he decided not to take anymore courses or pursue any more promotions. From then on he was going to devote more time to his family.

Father did not wake up the next day.

My Original Comments

I think the balance between work and life is very important because of two reasons. First, the father in the story earned more and more money to improve the living standards of his family, but his spouse and children did not satisfy his performance since he spent too little time with them after work. In real life, there are many people, like the father, who work very hard to change their lives, but they also should care about their families and enjoy the vacation time. The reason is that the hard work is meaningless to a person without relatives and life. Second, health is the capital of work. Bearing too much work load without enough rest would worsen a person's health quickly. I believe nobody would want to repeat the father's tragedy in the story, so we all should balance our work and life wisely.

We should take care of our families. Let me tell you what implication is in the word of "family."

F: father + A: and + M: mother + I: I + L: love + Y: you

Put these words together into one sentence is that "Father and mother I love you."