Take Your Child to Work Day should be cancelled
It's time to admit that Take Your Child to Work Day is an outdated relic of 1970s feminism, and we can put the whole thing to rest.
Do you remember that the day started as Take Our Daughters to Work? It was the 70s, and women wanted their daughters to know that they could do anything. Here's what came of that era: Latchkey kids who never saw their parents after school except on Take Our Daughters to Work Day. And, then later, those same little girls grew up to feel intense pressure to put work before kids which ushered in the biggest fertility train wreck in history, with Gen X thinking it would be fine to wait until after 30 to have kids.
So I have a bad taste in my mouth from the era of Take Our Daughters to Work. But then we had the era of boys underperforming. That's right: Boys are doing so much worse than girls in school that it's officially easier to get into college if you're a boy (scores are lower and so are GPAs) and once these kids enter the workforce, girls make more than boys do.
So some probably-drumming, angry, white male decided that it shouldn't just be daughters. It should be sons, too. So now we have Take Your Child to Work.
But here's what I want to know: Why?
This holiday now strikes me as one similar to Secretaries Day, which is a relic from the days when there were no computers and secretaries had thankless jobs and the men who were having sex with them on the side always forgot to thank her in the spotlight for the typing, so there is an official reminder day to buy her a card. That made sense. Twenty years ago.
Which is why it reminds me of Take Your Child to Work Day.
You know what else reminds me of this special day? The Week of the Young Child. Seriously. It was last week. Did you celebrate? Of course you did. Because every week is the week of the young child, because if you don't focus on young children they die. They eat bleach or get bitten by a squirrel or run over by a car.
The reason the Week of the Young Child reminds me of Take Your Child to Work Day is because, at this point, every day is taking children to work. I'm on my Blackberry all the time, and my division between work and kids is very tenuous. This is pretty common for my generation. And I think we're pretty happy with it — or we'd stop. So it's pretty clear to me that we don't need a day for kids being at work because they get exposed to their parents working all the time.
And anyway, do you know how annoying kids are for people who do not have kids? It's already totally over the top how many concessions people with kids get vs. people without kids. My cousin, for example, is a doctor, and when her colleague went on maternity leave early, my cousin was asked to cover for her because everyone in the practice has kids except for my cousin. This is routine behavior in corporate life (I know — I benefit from it all the time at my own company where I'm the only one with kids.)
So what we don't need is a day when people’s kids come into the office, disrupt everyone, eat all the good snacks and use up all the good office supplies. The disruption serves little purpose except to remind people without kids that kids are the center of the universe.
So I think this holiday is BS, and kids understand that they can be anything they want to be, so I don't see a point in dragging them to work. Which is why I didn't.
I ignored the holiday last year. And when I picked my son up at school, he said, “It's Take Children to Work Day. Are you taking me to your work?”
I say, “What? How do you know it's that day? Who told you?”
“My teachers brought their children to school because school is their work.”
What? Is this legal? My kids are in Madison, WI public schools. Surely it is not legal for teachers to bring their own kids into the classroom.
But before I can decide what to do about this, my son says, “I want to go to your work.”
How can I say no? I try to think of a way, believe me. But I don't have the heart.
The problem is that there is nothing in my office. Just some books.
So I buy a bunch of cookies from the coffee shop across the street from my office, and I borrow the white board from Photis and magic markers from Ryan Paugh. And my son draws on the board in between bites of cookies.
He says, “Take Your Child to Work Day is boring, let's go home.”
Maybe this is a victory.
Years ago I went to work with my mom–not just on the daughters day, but lots of times during the year as well (evenings, weekends). My mom was a head nurse in pediatric oncology, and I think some would argue over whether it was wise to bring me to that environment (I was probably a walking petri dish + I understood the seriousness of these kids’ illnesses), but what I learned has stayed with me forever–facing adversity at such a young age and taking pleasure in the little things. I remember their big smiles when they got to play with a kid that was healthy and not attached to tubes/IV’s, etc. When there were smiles, they lit up the room, and when there was pain and sadness, it taught me to be thankful for all that I had. I think when parents have meaningful work that can teach their kids a valuable lesson, then they should share.
Otherwise, I have to say I don’t like other kids’ boogers wiped on my desk.(A lovely occurrence this time last year.)
Funny timing…
I work from home. All the time. Really, too much. (I’m working on a “balance,” but really have this out of control “blend” that means I am always working.)
So, today, my 8.5-year old said to me,”You should take a day off.” He further pointed out that he is NEVER going to have a job where he has to work all of the time. What is his choice? He’s going to be teacher! (I think he envisions that their workday ends when the kids leave.) I did clue him into the fact that teachers (and many other jobs) involve working a lot at home, but he has a plan.
I guess, when EVERY day is “take your child to work” day, they take a lesson we may not intend.
Well, I don’t have kids, and in France (where I stand) I don’t see a day like this one.
Probably for too young kids this day is quite useless.
If it’s just for being locked in a room waiting for the day to go, for sure this seems useless too…
But for kids that are interested, isn’t it a nice opportunity to share something? This might be a lighter day than usual, where you show them the stuff you do, why you do it, etc…
And I wouldn’t mind explaining my work to another one’s kid, to expand the share.
In fact, there is one situation that would be quite hard. The one where the children are not respectful of the people and place (throwing things around, shouting, etc…). This happens, in public places. And those kids would probably not be welcome. But I’d probably have a problem with the parent then :|
why would I take my child to work when a good half the fun of work is NOT having your children there … be real … we don’t need this day … how bout take the child to gym day – at least the little couch potatoes could get a run around :) le
Other peoples’ kids aren’t so bad. When you’re done getting them sugared up, played out, making them cry, and generally guaranteeing a melt-down is soon in the works, you get to give them back and go about your day kid-free! It’s the parents that get stuck with the problem! And the funny thing is those same people think you’re good with kids because you’re freeing them from having to watch their little brats for a while! Bahahahaha!
So totally agree. I’m worn out with all the silly holidays and Week for This and Day for That — all excuses to eat stuff I don’t need. Every day is Kids Day anyway.
Think of it as one of those “scared straight” programs where they take kids to the county jail. Show them what they will end up doing for a living if they don’t follow their dreams. Seriously though, I wouldn’t over think it. Hey, it’s a day to hang out with the kid and shake up the daily routine. You don’t get anything done, they don’t get anything done, but hey, routines are good to shake up from time to time.
It’s very difficult to take your article seriously when you don’t fact check the first sentence and basis of your argument. “Take Our Daughter’s to Work Day” didn’t start in the seventies – it was 1993.
That stuck out to me too. So, really, Take Your Child To Work Day didn’t actually usher any of those “results” you list in your parade of horribles.
At the risk of sounding like an internet nerd: sensationalism FAIL.
Secretaries still have thankless jobs.
Instead of bitching about how the feminists screwed up Gen X …instead of bitching about how lame taking your spawn to work is… instead of saying that secretaries were being banged by their bosses (perhaps true in some cases, but not for all- most secretaries worked their asses off for minimum wage all the while getting ogled and pinched. i don’t know for sure but i’ll bet feminism had a lot to do w/ stopping the ass pinching… My mother was a secretary to feed our family and I guarantee no one dare pinch her ass or she’d split a foot open w/ her 3″ heels)
anyway, my point is this: instead of bringing your spoilt child to work who will only discover mommie blogs all day or they’ll spend all their time on their gameboy or texting, you should bring a child from an impoverished background to work. a kid whose parent(s) don’t have shit to begin with. a kid who sees nothing but violence, thugs hanging around the corner selling dope, mom out of work, dad in jail, etc. this kind of kid doesn’t know or comprehend that he/she can be anything. that kid would BENEFIT so much from being taken to work. you may make a difference in someone else’s life. So you can get over yours.
All that filing that piles up is perfect for take your kid to work day. Why it is one of my favorite day’s.
I work out of my house most days. My kids get invade my workspace every day, or maybe I’m invading their home space. They would much rather me take them to school vs our babysitter. How about a Take Your Kids to School day for overworked parents who don’t get to spend much time in their kids’ world?
Andrea
Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day is an educational opportunity. Everybody here has benefited from some sort of educational opportunity that was afforded to them. Why all the venom? These are children who may benefit from being exposed to something eye-opening and educational.
A friend of mine took my daughter to work with her (I am a stay at home parent). She learned about how computers control satellites in space. She learned about the physics of bottle rockets and learned about missiles being launched from submarines. My daughter is seven years old and had a whole world opened up to her that I would have been hard-pressed to show her.
As with any opportunity, it’s how you use it and take advantage of the possibilities.
When it first started, I didn’t like take our daughters to work day. It was sexist and discriminatory from day one.
Things I think we should have:
No BS and time wasting during meetings week.
Day where people come to work and work day.
Planning and Project Organization Week.
Take Quality Serious Week.
You have raised some good points about affirmative action. I think it is time that we take those boxes off of hiring forms ( I mean if we are really serious ).
Lets be honest. This is a time where business needs to focus on priorities of getting the job done. That means hiring qualified people. If you are hiring people or not hiring people based on ethnic background and or sex, I believe this economy may wipe you out.
But I do not mean that protections shouldn’t be left in place. Employers shouldn’t be able to ask questions such as ‘ Do you plan to have kids?’.
Sorry for the rant. But I have worked in a couple of places where “The good old boy network ” was alive and well, and they weren’t always white male protestants. One went down, ten people lost their jobs. Another kept having problems, every year they would have a problem that would wipe out most if not all of their profit. Never asking or appearing to look around and say, you know maybe we need to look at personnel in management and re-think our hiring. Maybe we should have hired that lady who had ten years of experience working at a company that is successful.
The only bright side I see to this economy, is that maybe some of this crap will be weeded out.
Wow–most of you people make me sad.
I took my daughter to work at the federal courthouse where we organized a day to teach them about the criminal justice process, they got to meet and talk to a judge, etc. I had her read settlement letters and see the outcome of a settlement conference at the end of the day, and we talked about how they settled the case, and what that meant. I set her up next to me at my desk and, yes, she sometimes saw me check my e-mail, but she also learned what I do as a lawyer. I did not sit her in an empty room with a DS–I made her learn something, and when she got bored I printed out information on Sacagwea, for her report next month, ans gave her a highlighter.
For crying out loud, teach your children something. Make the effort. Get off your Blackberry.
You make several interesting points, but does it have to be so complicated? My 2 kids, ages 7 (boy) and 4 (girl), had a great time in my office yesterday. They got to spend some time at this mysterious place daddy goes to every day. They made some new friends, experienced life in an office environment, and learned a little about how we help people get jobs. (we are an HR consulting firm)
My company planned a series of games to keep everyone busy and they brought in pizza and ice cream for lunch. I got a lot of work done and the day ended nicely for them at 2pm.
My oldest was so excited about the day he was up at 5am dressed and ready to go. He hasn’t stopped talking about how much fun he had. For me, it was nice for my colleagues to meet my family and for me to get to know them all a little better.
Wonderful assessment of an unnecessary “holiday”.
I also loved that you pointed out that, for parents, ever day is children’s day. For those of us who have already raised our children (one daughter a United States Marine serving in Iraq and another a struggling art student), you are preaching to the choir but we like your sermon anyway.
I thought Take Your Daughter to Work Day began in 1993? Sure, parents have been taking their kids to work for a variety of reasons for decades (I would help my dad collect carts at the grocery store he worked at), but the named day began in the ’90s.
While I disagree with the majority of what you just said, you completely redeemed yourself by mentioning the little-talked-about fact that people without children routinely get screwed by people who have kids. People assume that since I’m engaged and buying a house, kids can’t be far behind and think I’m some sort of freak that my fiance and I have decided not to have children. One of the main reasons is because of overpopulation, and then people like the octomom…well, I’ll leave it at that because I will just get angry.
My worst fear is that when I am 70 I will regret my decision not to have children, or that I will decide I DO want them, only to find out I’m too old. And you know what, there are plenty of kids that would be happy to be adopted and raised by a couple of older people with established careers.
And also, a lot of people cannot afford to have kids until they have established their careers.
As a general comment, I’d just like to say that, as in all areas of life, there is no set answer, because “it depends”…on the job, the child, the parent, the season, you name it.
I definitely agree with the teacher who said if we’re going to keep this theme day, we should at least move it to the summer so it doesn’t disrupt school. Spring is frantic enough for parents with concerts and rehearsals, sports games and practices, private lessons, tutoring sessions, doctor appts… The list goes on.
I agree that these theme days are becoming ridiculous in number. Personally, I wish it hadn’t been started, either, but I fear it’s here to stay. I remember the look on my son’s face when we (parents) told him he couldn’t go to work with us (to an intelligence agency–imagine!). Because of course every other kid in his class whose parents had a “normal” job got to go to work.
I think this is just another example of institutionalizing something that really should be left to individual parents. But just as society now expects teachers to teach subjects that parents should be teaching at home, too many parents opt out and dump it on teachers.
Perhaps some of us here have forgotten (or at least not yet mentioned) that the original intention of this day was valid. To offer our children an opportunity to see what the work world is like, and to get them thinking about what they want to do when they grow up. But for the entire country to do this en masse on the same day? Uh-uh. It should be an individual thing, planned by a parent for his/her child.
I understand that if it were not institutionalized, some employers would not allow their employees to bring their children to the workplace. So what? Then take a personal day to take your child to your place of business or to another. Or to a museum. The point is, this day was intended to be instructive to children, so if all we do is remove our kids from school (bad enough) only to play or file paperwork, that is sending the wrong message.
Final thoughts: which theme days are government-decreed and which are only pushed by the card industry? Who determines the exact date? More food for thought.
Wow. Whole lotta generalizin’ goin on in this post. Congratulations.
Growing up in the seventies, it (TYCTWD) was still called, “Take Your Daughter to Work Day.” My father never took any of my three sisters to work with him at his two man office. I on occasion did go to work with my father. He put me no work cleaning his office and storage area. That was a real lesson.
Wouldn’t it be nice, and more relevant to our generation, to begin a tradition of teaching our kids balance and boundaries around work? Maybe we should start a teach your kids how to get back to the basics and have fun day, where we actually DO take the day off instead of just screwing around and we show them what it means to recharge our batteries and be human instead of blurring work and family together every single day.
P – incidentally, I’m on of the Xers and I am looking forward to having a family. 33, no kids yet, 2 years into a great relationship that’s going somewhere. I think our generation was taught that we first have to prove we’re career-minded, dedicated women before WE feel valuable enough to be wives and mothers. At least, it seems that way. The divorce rates of our parents’ generation also taught us to be self-sufficient first, then marry. Maybe if we realize our inherent value as individuals stripped of our career identities and went into marriages fully committed and expecting them to actually stand the test of time we’d have married and had children younger. Sigh.
Of course, I could be completely wrong.
So many commentors have missed the point, as have you Penelope. It’s about education and opportunity, not free babysitting and out of control toddlers running amok through the hallways of a place of business.
Obviously, not all jobs/careers/workplace environments are suited to this kind of thing. Fine. They shouldn’t participate. Many larger companies are well suited for this kind of community outreach program, though. And it’s a fine opportunity for kids to learn about how their education impacts their career opportunities and choices.
Also, Take Our Daughters to Work day was stared in 1993. It’s an educational program, not a holiday.
WRONG. WRONG. WRONG.
How could you be so wrong?
First off, I’m a guy. Yep. A man. who HAPPILY brought his children (5 and 3) to work on Thursday.
My children both receive lots of early intervention and/or CSE therapy at their schools. Their days are jam-packed. And then after that, there’s daycare until we can go get them.
So on one day a year, when they can get a glimpse into what Daddy does for a living, and when Daddy’s company plans an entire day for the kids (which was wonderful, by the way) to experience what Daddy does at work… they take advantage of that.
And the next day, everyone goes back to what they do every day.
Should it be an “official day?” In this case, yes, because at least at my company, alot of other parents brought THEIR kids to work, and unlike other companies, mine actually cares about the people that work here, and the kids all had a great time, and for at least one day, all barriers were lowered and everyone enjoyed each other’s kids.
If you don’t like that… don’t go to work on Take Your Kids to Work Day.
And I REALLY can’t believe that you don’t see a benefit here to this day. Anything that allows the next generation to get a glimpse at what their parents are doing is a good thing.
I’m an Australian and we do not have an equivalent, but as most of my culture comes from yours (thanks for terrible TV shows like Friends by the way), I know what you mean. At first I thought you were a guy (you know, because you are a misogynist), until you started talking about your kids (men never do this in case they come across a hot woman and decide to leave their kids behind). So I checked the heading at the top of this web page, no, you’re just a self-loathing woman. Not only are you a woman, but you have kids! Really, are you that selfish? Why did you have kids? Did their middle class perfection go with your need for someone other than your husband to love? Grow up and stop blaming women for being bad parents. Maybe many of them are, but their husbands are just as much to blame for the imperfection you see reflected in them.
Yep, Take Your Child To Work Day is stupid. I never got the point, because if you are an involved, engaged parent, shouldn’t your kid(s) sort of already know alot about what you do and what your work environment is like? As in, come see you at work, or come see you on a one-off afternoon after school?
I used to do this at my Mom’s work and it was a non-issue.
And yes, you are so right, the 70s era feminism led to the biggest fertility train wreck ever, by not telling us the massively politically incorrect, but wholly true fact, that women are at their fertility peak at age 20, like it or not, and going out there and ‘proving’ yourself and waiting until after you are 30 to have kids is a Bad Idea.
If anyone out there, male or female, thinks for a minute they will want to have children, you must prioritize it to make sure it happens.
You have your whole life to develop and have a kick ass career, but you do not whatsoever have much time to have the children you want.
You have less time than you think you do, go talk to a fertility doctor if you don’t believe me.
oh, I also went and visited my Dad and Stepdad at their workplaces too, just not my Mom’s.
I have had several reactions as a DINK with pets. Also, all people without children didn’t make the choice not to have kids, for some it was made for them. That isn’t my case but I know family that has been faced with this and it isn’t appropriate to decide a childless couple is selfish.
Funny reaction: Need balance by take your dog to work day.
Professional Reaction: I understand the benefits of a program surrounding a well designed “take your off spring to work day” can be well done. My friend was describing her employer had a program that set the kids up in teams and gave them a project to do and let them compete with each other “Apprentice” style. They had to sell something to the employees, do quarterly reports, develop a marketing program, and sales techinques. Their profits were given to charity. Well Done.
Looking back on my childhood and I never went to an official “Take your daughter to work day.” In my case, my father was a Merchant Sea Captain. I spent time on many of his commands when they were in port. However, I couldn’t actually “go” to work with him. My mother was a stay at home mother and then a real estate appraiser. I regularly went with her to hold the other end of the measuring tape. No offical day. Just did it. The end result is I can pretty much guess property value from my gut once I have a sense of the sales in an area and I get horribly sea sick. Other is my friends and colleagues regularly comment on my drive for success and work ethic. That comes from years of work on my parents behalf, not from one day a year at their office. I had to work for the luxuries in my life with chores. I spent many April vacations raking and painting not to get paid but to earn the leather Nikes I wanted. Sure, my parents could afford anything I wanted. That wasn’t how it worked in my house. Hence, work ethic was drilled into me. I don’t get how this is a positive thing for most children?
BTW, I work from a home office. Every day is take your pet to work!
I really enjoyed taking my 5-year-old son to work on Take Your Child to Work Day, but it took a little planning so I could be productive and other people weren’t disturbed too much. He stayed for only two hours; I couldn’t imagine dealing with him at work all day. I brought him in on the train (he loved that). Then he attended our staff meeting, just looked around and quietly ate his donuts the whole time. He thought the videoconferencing thing was cool. (He whispered to me “Are those guys on the TV talking to us?”) He played in an empty office with some other kids. His father picked him up at 11 and drove him to his preschool. I think Penelope Trunk sounds a little bit nutty railing about this: I say, participate or don’t participate, do whatever you want. If you do participate, try to be considerate of your coworkers.
This year our office chose to “not participate” in take your child to work day. YAHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is just a day that people , I should say SOME people think of as a free babysitters club day!!! They take extra time off to go and get the child or children, then let them run the halls, run around the office and disturb those who are trying to actually work. It should not be allowed and ..hmmm..maybe that is why they decided to not participate this year?? The old lessons are out the window these days. Children USE to learn what work really was. NOW they play games on computers or anything Mom can think of to keep them busy for 4-6 hrs. I am truly sorry for those who actually thought it a good day. Like everything it seems this also has taken on a new meaning for todays children, and it is not a good one.
I agree wholeheartedly. Especially the section about how workers with children get special concessions. I raised four children (all born in the 70s). If they were sick, I used sick/vacation days to stay home with them. Today, not only do coworkers bring their sick children into work with them, they stay home and work “online,” so they don’t have to waste their precious sick/vacation days. Believe me, when my kids were sick, I didn’t have the time to work at home. I was too busy taking care of them. There’s also the early departures for early school dismissal, plays, parties, etc. I don’t begrudge parents their time with their children, but it should be on their own time, not company time.
AMEN, sister!
I’m not a parent, so I may be biased, but if you have a close relationship with your kids, shouldn’t you be able to explain to them what you do? A periodic (and short!) visit to the workplace isn’t out of place, but why the whole dog and pony show?
I also second your note about the balance between workers w/ kids and those without. I never begrudge the girl scout cookie drive, the baby shower gifts etc. because I do so out of friendship in our relatively small workplace. In a larger office I could see how it could lead to strained relations.
I’ve just read this post as I missed it last week. Very funny and it reminds me of the fact that yesterday was Poem in Your Pocket (PIYP) day (7th annual in NYC) – http://www.nyc.gov/html/poem/html/home/home.shtml – and April was National Poetry Month.
So I have a poem for you written Jack Prelutsky titled ‘Last Night I Dreamed of Chickens’ –
Last night I dreamed of chickens,
there were chickens everywhere,
they were standing on my stomach,
they were nesting in my hair,
they were pecking at my pillow,
they were hopping on my head,
they were ruffling up their feathers
as they raced about my bed.
They were on the chairs and tables,
they were on the chandeliers,
they were roosting in the corners,
they were clucking in my ears,
there were chickens, chickens, chickens
for as far as I could see…
when I woke today, I noticed
there were eggs on top of me.
What dimension do you live in? Certainly not the one I live in. Oh wait that’s right, you think that women should wear makeup to work to please the men folk!
Take your daughter to work day is still as valid today as it ever was. As a woman and a mother I have to tell you, I was never given any extra consideration or privileges because I had children, and I was a single mother. Young women still feel as though they are not as good as men in the more technical fields. They need good role models. Not Brittany Spears, oh but she looks “purty”. We still have the highest rates of Bulimia and Anorexia of any country while our girls try and look like models.
I know this is your blog with your opinion, but you never cite any valid studies to back up your claims. All this blog is, is your slanted, antiquated opinion about life through your narrow rosy glasses.
Totally agree! Not that I don’t love children, but to see them 24/7 is so over killed! On the other hand, I don’t mind bringing my cuddly small dogs to work…at least they don’t throw tantrum.
Why are white males always “angry” in libs eyes? I am very happy 90% of the time and am VERY conservative.
important for me this blog.
The other part I hate about this day, is that the spends time/energy/money on planning activities for the kids brought in, which means the parents are often leaving their work to go to this activity with the kids. Now, it’s great because I don’t have the kid next to me trying to distract me from working anymore, BUT I also don’t have my coworker working for like 3 hours while they are at the activity and now I have to cover for them. REALLY ANNOYING!
I guess, when EVERY day is “take your child to work” day, they take a lesson we may not intend.
Wow – you seem to take advantage of government inteference and the resulting policies when it suits you, yet want to prevent others from enjoying benefits.
This is a half empty/half full situation. Every parent-child relationship is unique, as are careers As a parent it is your right and responsibility to provide the basic Life 101 instructions and examples to your kid. My daughter has accompanied me to work long before I knew there was a national day for it. She understands everything from restaurant management, to warehouse management, to project management to software deveopment. She developed an understanding of how my day job impacted our home life. If you don’t see any benefit to that education – fine – tell your kid why, send him to school, and get over yourself
Yes I agree, my kids are young and still think I’m a superhero. I want them to enjoy life while they can and not think about how boring Dad’s job really is.
Well, if I’d work in a uranium mine, I certainly wouldn’t take my child to see where I work. Nowhere near it.
This stands, however, even for friendly working environments. “Ladies and gentlemen of the board, let me introduce you my son.” “Mommy, mommy, that guy has a big mole on his nose.” I don’t think that everyone would appreciate that.
I think it’s a stupid day. The kids must be so bored – I feel sorry for them. At our workplace they are often here all day. It’s bad enough being at work when you’re a worker, but if you’re not even getting paid?? And you have to be there all day? It’s also seems geared solely towards daytime office workers. What if you work at a 7-11? Or the graveyard shift in a factory? What if the conditions in that factory were dangerous? Of course they would not allow you to bring your child to work in that case. The whole thing is so stupid, they should abolish it, nuf said.
It’s obvious that none of you even really understand what the day is supposed to be about so you cheat your kids, your co-workers, and other children in your life out of an experience that could help shape their future. It’s not a day for 3 year olds or playpens. It was meant for kids age 8-17; a plan for the day is supposed to be set; they don’t just stay with their parent but they learn about the company you work for and how it fits into society; they then have a school assignment related to how they spent the day.
We have over 80 kids come to our surgical center and they have activities set up for 9am-2pm which include- learning about blood pressures, temps, heart rates and why those numbers are important, they learn about medical records and actually put together one for themselves as they go to the different stations throughout the day; they can have a cast put on, go into the OR and learn about what each person does in the OR, First Aid, they play with our scope s and get pictures taken with them, they learn how to take a BP and what their heart rate looks like on a monitor; they have time to do art projects that we set up, the fire dept comes and lets the kids play on the truck, and the list goes on. They go home exhausted and it promotes a more cohesive work environment.
It sounds like the biggest barrier to making it work for your people is your horrible attitudes and blatant dislike for the path you chose in life. With that said, it’s probably better your kids don’t go to work with you- failure isn’t much fun to witness.
Wow, It’s TYCTWD 2014 and I’m just reading this now. I love your response and could not agree with you more. I work from home now but enjoyed a great experience that inspired me as a kid when my mother too me to work with her. My husband now works in the hospital and I’m wanting him to take our 6 yr hold. I was looking for what the day might look like and had to dig to get to here to find out. I hope the hospital does something like this- it’s Children’s Hosp of Philly. I love what you guys do at your facility and kudos to you for writing the response.
I do not like it either I agree with Corrine. They should just do away with this day..
You are an idiot.
I find the article very narrowed minded. I have two sons and my husband plans to take one to his work and I will take the other. Each of our companies have activities and presentations planned for the children. I think it is a great opportunity for children to not only see where their parents work, but what they do and have an opportunity to meet the people they work with and interact with on a daily basis. I think it is also a great day for children to be exposed to other positive role models. I was a stay-at-home Mom for the past 11 years and just recently re-entered the work force, so my children have had the benefit of both worlds. I think this will be a great opportunity for my son’s to see what potential there is for their future. They are excited and looking foward to it.
Idiotic. Have you looked out the window? Still a man’s world. It’s not something to leave behind/in the past, it plays out in the present. If I bring my daughter to work, it’s not to show her that I can do anything, it’s to show her SHE can. Our daughters are enslaved by bullying, peer pressure, media. If they do away with the day, it will be to saveon lost productivity, nothing to do with advancement that doesn’t involve stepping on eachother to get anywhere.
good post