I don't know about your place of employment, but every year my office hosts "Take Your Child to Work Day."
I have no idea whose brilliant idea this was.
I understand that every parent (well almost, my mother never would have participated in this shit) is exceedingly proud of their spawn and love showing them off to others.
"Look at what I made!!!!! A human!!!!!!"
For those of us who do not have children, don't want them, and don't even particularly like them (i.e. ME), Take Your Child to Work Day is a particularly awful day of punishment and awkwardness.
For those of you who have never had the pleasure of this experience, parents bring their children to work, introduce them around the office like a prize pony, and then let the children run amok like it's a playground.
The initial awkwardness begins during the "introduction" phase. Particularly if the child has not fully mastered language yet. The majority of the time I have no idea what to say to the parents when they introduce their show dog. I mean, child. What I really want to say is something along these lines:
"Hi Suzie! Aren't you cute! Now get out of my cube before you shit your pants or start crying."
Otherwise I just stare at the kid like it's going to bite me any second while making awkward conversation with the parent about their kid's sleeping/eating/pooping schedule. As if I was even actually curious about this information.
Once the introduction phase is over (thank god) it's time for the kids to run around the office "playing" with each other. "Playing" typically means running as fast as they can around the office screaming and yelling at each other. The worst is when they play "hide and seek" and decide to use your cube/office as their hiding place. Then you are saddled with a kid for as long as it takes the other kid to locate him. This could be minutes or an hour depending on the sleuthing skills and intelligence of the other children.
Naturally on this day, no actual work can get done because the office has been turned into a day care and every minute all day long a screaming child can be heard somewhere in the office. Also heard is the endless affirmations to the parents about how cute/smart/tall, etc their kid is. Or the very worst, the baby talk and "cooing" noises that adults feel is necessary when attempting to communicate with a small child.
Basically it's the epitome of egomania.
I have already requested this day as a vacation day.
Do any of you have Take Your Child to Work Day? Like it or hate it?
+1,000,000 - especially for calling out the show dog aspect.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for helping children learn about careers and working, but Take Your Child to Work Day does not accomplish that purpose for all the reasons you outline. Half of them are too young to be getting anything out of it and the other half seem to have no interest in it anyway. Please. This is just another excuse for parents to get attention for that which has caused them to lose their own sense of self.
Make Your Teenager Get a Job Year would be a more productive pursuit.
no one does that at my office, but I remember going with my Dad when I was little and thinking it was super cool. I think I only went once though, and I was old enough to appreciate the things I learned. I think if there's "take your child to work day" there should be "take your pet to work day" and everyone should have to tell me how sweet and smart Mac is. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with this! Luckily, both of my most recent positions don't have a take your child to work day.. But there's definitely been the moments where people walk around with their children, introducing them to everyone... and I have no idea what to do with them besides smile. I think it makes sense if you have older children that might be interested in seeing how a real business goes through the day, but not for younger children. I would take a vacation day, too!
ReplyDeleteI still cannot believe this is a thing. I would die. I HATE when parents bring their kids into work though and just go stand around and wait for everyone to fall over over themselves because there is a small human being in the room. And then, when you don't react because you don't like children nor are you impressed by them, they look at you like you're Satan.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, our office doesn't do that except for when there's the random "baby stop" after someone has a kid. Those I don't mind bc they're generally short trips. I cannot imagine an entire day. It sounds like hell.
ReplyDeleteWe did this when I was growing up but it has (shockingly!) fallen out of favor lately. It was an assignment in middle school for us though so we were old enough that any variation of hide and seek, running, etc would have been severely punished.
ReplyDeleteI second Jessica's idea about take your pet to work day. Let me force you to coo at my dog, please.
I didn't realize we had it here until I was bombarded by children last year. Luckily I kind of sit off in nowhere land where it's quiet and no one can bother me.
ReplyDeleteIf peoples' kids are coming to work, they should be put to work! Here kids, do some filing...
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a thing that only happened on tv. I'm lucky I've never worked somewhere that takes part in this nightmare.
ReplyDeleteBahaha. Ironically, one of my coworkers brought his kid in to the office for a couple hours this morning. I love kids, though, and this one happens to be a pretty hilarious one, so I think we were all enjoying it while it lasted. My dad took me to one of those days when I was maybe 9 or 10, but they actually had activities and learning opportunities for us, and I was among the younger of the kids. So, it wasn't a zoo. I feel like that's what companies should do if they're going to do one of those days!
ReplyDeleteMy office doesn't have a formal day like this, but people are ALWAYS bringing their kids up here. I keep my door closed. And if I hear "giggling or crying" heading my way while walking in my office, I hide.
ReplyDeleteIt is totally a dog and pony show. I have three 4-legged children- wonder how the yahoos would feel about high pitched barking all afternoon?