Working Wives & Bachelorettes: Take a Kid to Work

Take your child to work day… The one day a year, small humans feel so special that they get to skip a day of school and head to work with their parent.

Now, when I was little, it was JUST take your daughter to work day, but has since become take your child to work.

My mom was a teacher – so in a sense I was STILL going to school (just not my school). And I knew what a teacher did at their job – I was surrounded all day by a teacher. But it was different, and it made me feel “cool.”

I got to write on the chalkboard, check papers, have lunch in the teacher’s lounge, play with the bunny in the science class, AND I got to do all the work that my mom assigned to the kids (I wanted to prove I was smarter than them and could get the highest grade). Yes, I was an over-achiever and a perfectionist even as a 8 year old.

I’m not sure I ever got out of it what the actual goal of “Take Your Child to Work Day” is, which is apparently a program that goes beyond the average “shadow” an adult and shows them the value of their education, helping them discover the power and possibilities associated with a balanced work and family life, and providing them an opportunity to share how they envision the future and begin steps toward their end goals in a hands-on and interactive environment is key to their achieving success.

I knew my mom had to deal with bratty children, I knew she came home covered in chalk dust, I knew once she got home she made dinner and then sat and graded papers. I knew this. It didn’t inspire me to be a teacher. I wanted to be an astronaut. (Those lucky kids probably got to use a weightlessness simulator when they went to work with their parents.)

Which makes me think – what would be some of the best jobs to go to work with your parent to, how about the worst?

Best: