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Bring Your Child to Work Day 2016

Posted On  August 8, 2016
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Full disclosure: I don’t have kids. I like kids, though. Kids and I have a lot in common. We like Harry Potter and Pixar movies. We scream for ice cream. We resist vegetables. We get cranky when we need food or sleep. We overestimate how long we can play outside before getting sunburned. The list goes on.

Needless to say, I was looking forward to Bring Your Child to Work Day and making new friends who share my interests. LRW hosted Bring Your Child to Work Day on Friday, and it did not disappoint. I made some new friends throughout the day and got to share cookies and ice cream with people who get as excited about cookies and ice cream as I do.

More importantly, though, I got to see the kids peek into their parents’ world. The kids learned a lot. One of my coworkers brought her son to a real meeting and talked to him about how to behave in a meeting, including how to greet people. Another coworker talked to her son about the different roles in the company and where she fit. Another coworker’s 9-year-old twins participated in a focus group. (What image represents their elementary school experience? A man using a jackhammer. This image means hard work.)

Exposing kids to work –  and the role their parent has at work – is invaluable. Collette Eccleston, PhD said, “Work is a major part of adult life. Many of us enter the work world with a set of beliefs, largely implicit, about what work entails, who does what kind of work, and the kind of emotions it evokes. These beliefs are likely shaped by mere glimpses of parents and other adults engaged in work. The details of work, what actually happens in work environments, are a mystery to many children.

“Bring Your Child to Work Day is a great opportunity to help kids become more informed and form positive associations with the world of work. Because context shapes so much of who we are, the person we are at work is likely a pretty different person than who we are at home. So, kids also learn more about who their parents are, getting a more holistic view of the person.”

Bring Your Child to Work Day is important on multiple levels. It gives children greater exposure to their parents’ world. It allows parents to develop their children’s perspective on work. It also allows coworkers to learn more about each other and see each other in a new light.

As one of my coworkers put it, “I loved seeing my coworkers here with their children. It humanized them and showed how much they care for their children.” Bring Your Child to Work Day was a strong reminder that we’re all part of a community.

And, on really good days, that community serves ice cream.

10 Comments

  1. My favorite day of the year! What a lovely event & so honored to work for a company that allows us to bring our children into our work lives once a year so that they can see and meet all the amazing people we work with here!

  2. Huge thanks to all the great LRW volunteers who made the day so special for the kids!!! My kids cannot wait to come back next year and didn’t want to leave at the end of the day!

  3. Huge thanks to the team for putting this event together me and my son had an amazing time. He talked about his experience and all the cool people he met all night, can’t wait to do it again next year!!!

  4. Wonderful post. With my working out of our Chicago office – where we don’t have quite the size of our LA headquarters – I’ve made a point of bringing my children to work with me at least once a year, so they can see our entrepreneurial workplace in action. They get to know each and every person in the office (and often ask me about them throughout the year), and get to see and be a part of a dynamic, high-energy, and positive work environment. My son recently told me, “I think when I grow up I’m either going to work in market research or be a baseball player.” Well, if market research doesn’t work out for him, I’m glad to know he has a backup option!

  5. Thank you so much for hosting this event for all us parents to enjoy! It was really special to share time at work with my daughter and I’m already looking forward to doing so again next year.

  6. I love this day — bringing my kids is so much fun, but I also love meeting my co-workers kids too! My son is old enough to ask about it now, so I know he looks forward to it as well. Thanks to all who organized, says so much about who we are that we value and make time for this type of event!

  7. Great job capturing the day! Since Leo was sick, my participation was mostly limited to swiping cookies and playing with Katie’s daughter, but it was still great to be a part of. Looking forward to next year!

  8. What a fun event. And a great blog post! My guy was too young this year but it’ll be fun to bring him once he’s a bit older – both so he can participate in the fun and so he can get a little glimpse of where I go and who I spend the day with every morning when I leave the house.

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