I admire your observance, I really do. If I could afford it, I'd refrain from all work from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown, too. Unfortunately, that's not how it works for my family, and on those Friday evenings/Saturday afternoons when my wife and I don't have to physically appear at our jobs, we've got other work to do: washing dishes, doing laundry, cooking meals for our kids. So thank G-d there are families like yours out there "representing on the observant tip," as the kids say. But come on—if you're going to do it, do it right. It seems there hasn't been a single weekend in the past six months that hasn't brought some "emergency" call from you, asking if one of my daughters can come over to turn on a light or open a jar or turn on the TV or execute some other little bit of business you somehow missed in your pre-Shabbat preparations. We're happy to help, but enough is enough. I have no doubt it's a pain in the ass to organize things around a day devoted to rest and prayer but really, isn't the pain-in-the-ass aspect kind of the point of preparing for Shabbat? Do it right or not at all. Or better yet, get some G-ddamned light timers, some takeout, and some TiVo and stop making my family your day-of-rest day laborers.

—Anonymous