"I worked my butt off!"

“I worked my butt off!” is how the saying goes. But where did it come from? I’ve heard the phrase hundreds of times. Hell, I’ve even used it on occasion, but I’ve never really understood how it could have originated.

In my mind I can see this big guy and he’s out working hard. (I’m not being sexist here; I just think you have to agree that a member of the fairer sex couldn’t have come up with something like this) He’s not very literate, probably can’t even read, but he needs some kind of manly, blue collar explanation of just exactly how hard he’s been working. So why choose his butt? I mean, if you’re going to work something off wouldn’t something like “Damn, I worked my arms off,” be much more to the point?

Thanks to my Dad I now understand what was going through that big guy’s head.

My parents recently moved into a new house. They’ve been retired for a few years and decided it was time to move somewhere that would be a little more centrally located between their three children and five grandchildren. So, they built a house right outside of Austin and moved in a few weeks ago.

My dad had several projects that he needed some help with, not the least of which was flooring part of the attic. He’s got two sons, but I’m the one he calls when he needs this kind of help, and to tell the truth I enjoy doing that kind of thing. Especially with Dad.

Last Tuesday, after a host of traveling mishaps, I flew into Austin for a week of work. Dad’s idea was to, “Work my butt off!” and he did!

We built a workbench and two six-foot storage cabinets, floored a HUGE section of the attic, got three truckloads of stuff out of storage and organized the garage. We also problem solved some innovative solutions to some difficult storage issues, came up with some interesting future project ideas and laughed a lot!

After throwing several trips to Home Depot into the mix, you get a really successful, really fun “Work your butt off” kind of week.

Dad, thanks for helping me to understand what working your butt off really means…I had a lot of fun.

You know Dad, I've got some attic that needs flooring...how's your butt feeling?