All across the country today, working moms and dads will have some very special helpers as workplaces welcome their employee’s kids to visit for Take your Son or Daughter to Work Day. Originally founded in 1993 as Take Our Daughters to Work Day, the program initially aimed to build self-esteem and provide exposure to a range of careers at an early age for girls. Many employers immediately expanded the program to include boys, and, in 2003, the national organization expanded to include our sons.
Last year was the first year that one of my kids—my then seven-year-old daughter – was old enough to participate in Take Your Son or Daughter to Work Day at my company. She had been asking about it for a few years. Finally, she could go.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure that the experience would live up to the hype she had in her mind. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job in corporate communications, but it’s not the most exciting thing to come and watch. My days consist of meetings and working on my computer. But I was looking forward to her seeing where I spend my time away from her and her brother and sister, to see that my desk is covered with their photos and artwork, and to meet the great people that I spend my work days with.
Dressed in our best business casual attire and armed with our work bags – mine containing my laptop, printouts of PowerPoint presentations and red pens, and hers chock full of paper, markers, and books – we braved the rush-hour Route 28 commute. (The teachable moments started immediately as she learned first-hand the importance of things like the proper use of the term “jagoff” and that civility hangs on the delicate thread of using both lanes until the merge point and then taking turns.)
We often drive around the perimeter of Downtown Pittsburgh on our way to visit relatives, and the kids always look for “Mom’s work building.” Today, though, we didn’t go around…we exited and went straight in. The mundane that I take for granted every day was exciting to her – driving in a spiral two stories underground to park, getting buzzed through the security turnstiles, taking the elevator so high up that our ears popped—she couldn’t believe how “cool” it was that I got to do this every day! We went to the great activities that my company organizes every year, met up with friends and headed to Market Square for lunch, and then headed back to the office where I had to actually get some work done. She got to sit at her very own desk near me, where she diligently wrote a story about her “first day at work.” She loved every single minute of it, and, at the end, was sure that she wanted to work at my company (but after she retired from her dual career of doctor and teacher, of course).
This year, all three of my kids are taking part, now that the twins are almost seven years old. They, too, have been asking to go to Take Your Son or Daughter to Work for years. Their older sister has told them all the great things to look forward to — a Dunkin’ Donuts across the street, a machine in the office kitchen that makes the BEST hot chocolate, and the chance to sit at their very own desk! I hope they are as easy to impress as she was, but most of all, I’m looking forward to sharing that other side of my life with them!
