Apparently there is a holiday (?) in the US where parents get to take their kids to work for the day. I don't remember this day from when I was a kid, so it either didn't exist way back then or it wasn't nearly as big of a thing as it is now. Anyway, today was take your kids to work day.
I found out on my drive to work when the personalities on the radio had their kids in the studio. Naturally they had listeners call in and talk about taking their kids to work. Once I got to downtown, parents were rushing to work, kids in tow. I finally got to work and there were kids everywhere. And events for parents and their kids. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that there probably wasn't much work done today. But that's okay because everybody seemed to have a lot of fun.
I didn't take this day as hard as I might have in the past, but it did make me think that this is yet another thing that infertility took from me. I'll never get to share my job with my child. I'll never get to take my child on a tour of campus or show them my office. Just a little gut punch that I wasn't expecting.
Kid@work? Luckily we don't have that in our parts of Europe, but I am sure we will within few years. Can you imagine - when I was little, we did not know anything about Valentine's day... and now it is all about Valentine for whole month before the day.
ReplyDeleteI know... there are so many punches, some of them happen when not expected at all.
My not expected punch this week. I took my beloved Wolfie for a walk after the rain, there were lots of water in the forest. I noticed a beautiful big snail drowning, so I took him out of water and rescued him. Wolfie was very interested what I was doing. And then it struck me - I will never have opportunity to teach a young child that it is nice to be kind. That if you can rescue a tiny animal, it is a right thing to do. You can't save everybody. But I could make a change in this snail's life.
I was sad for a moment. But then I reminded myself (again) that I should stop wasting my time on regretting things that weren't meant to be. And live my life the best that I can.
xoxoxo from Europe from Wolfie and me.
That was a big ouch too! We really can anticipate the hard stuff, it's the stuff that catches us off guard....
DeleteIt used to be "take your daughter to work day" to show girls jobs they could have, now it's kind of turned into an all inclusive thing for some reason. We don't really get to do this at my job because we deal with too much confidential information. I can deal with my coworkers kids though, watching the work life balance of mom's seems to take some of edge off of missing out.
ReplyDeleteThree cheers for confidential information! :)
DeleteUgh. I'm glad we didn't have that. We did have the occasional adult kid turn up at work on career day. But that was usually when they had approached a manager and asked for the work experience. I remember one guy who came in his last year of secondary school, and we offered him a part-time job to fund his way through university. He worked for us for four years. I like to think I taught him some things! lol
ReplyDeleteBut yes ... these little punches haunt us. Their impact lessens, but every so often ... oof!
See, I think that is perfect...learning some job skills, building work experience, and getting a little extra money. I'm sure you taught him a ton!
DeleteIn Canada, it's usually the first week of November, and they do it for kids in Grade 9. My company was one of the major sponsors since the event's inception & every year we'd be doing some sort of coverage for our internal news magazine/website, as well as external press release. The year Katie would have come to work with one of us was a hard one. That said, I think it's a great idea. ;) I always found it amusing to see the kids boarding the train with their parents (before 7 a.m.) & then sound asleep from exhaustion on the trip home that night! ;) I daresay they gained a whole new respect for their parents after experiencing firsthand what long days they put in.
ReplyDeleteHaha! Well I do suppose that a reality check for the kids was worthwhile. I like that they waited until grade 9. In the US it seems like activities are more geared towards little kids.
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