I heard from my mother. Here we have the same characters: the cruel step-mother, cinderella and 2 sisters. But the story is the opposite:

  Once upon a time there was cinderella living with her step-mother who lashived all her care and tenderness on her, never allowing her to do any hard job. However she was rather stern toward her own daughters, made them work hard, wash, clean, cook etc.
  People passed and wondered and asked her about it, but she would only smile and say:"I know better, you will see."
  Years passed and the girls grew up. Now it was the time for them to get married. The two daughters of that lady found good men and were prosperous as they were accostumed to hardworking, were not lazy and could do the housekeeping very well. But cinderella end miserable as she didn't know how to work and how to be patient in life!

Actually Catherine of Siena's father didn't want her to work and that was typical of the lives of most well-born Catholic girls.  It's only in this culture that girls are forced to go out and work as soon as they're 14.  That's Protestant, not Catholic.  There are lots of people working today but I don't see a lot of happiness, just a lot of empty frenzy.  And some people are so addicted to work that when they retire, or are forced to retire, they don't even know who they are and have a breakdown.

Perhaps I'm a bit defensive as I'm 33 and have never had a job, which I don't say is right -- but maybe that is what God wanted in a way, or He is using me to make some kind of point, when so many more people out there seek for jobs rather than Him.  Work is a way to keep the devil at bay and to serve society; to turn it into the be-all and end-all of existence is insanity.  But that is what is happening in the modern world.

I personally am morbidly fascinated by the spectacle of this job obsession because I know it's all going to come crashing down.  Even in the ruins of ʝʊdɛօ-Masonic western civilization, when you can tell something bad is about to happen, STILL all people think about are jobs and money.

 :sign-surrender:

I didn't mean that kind of work. I just meant people like the kids who never pick up a broom or a dirty dish until they're faced with life in an apartment or something.

I certainly don't agree that everyone belongs in the workplace. But everyone must "work" in their own life, in one way or another, even if they don't earn a paycheck. It's just part of walking through this "valley of tears."