When you were a kid, did you know where your parents were working?
(I guess for farmers the answer would definitely be yes, but what about everybody else?)
I'd been asked about my parents' occupations since kindergarten (mom worked at the same daycare, so at least at that stage I didn’t need to worry about it). But throughout the entire time of me growing up, I kept being asked to explain what exactly my parents did.
In the beginning, I didn't know it at all. Then, I memorized the chains of words that didn't mean anything to me. I've hardly known what exactly my parents did most of the day. I asked them many times too, and they explained it, but it was hard for me to understand, as the world of their work didn't really exist in my world.
I've never seen it. They’ve never taken us kids to their workplaces. First, we were too small, then everybody had their own schedules. Even when I grew up and happened to stop by their offices, they would put everything aside and just visit. So I never got to see how they look like in that work environment, which I assumed would be pretty different from what we saw at home. Or to even see the work environment itself, as if it wasn't worth the time.
Not that long ago a friend of mine asked me to take her 10 and 12-year-olds for a few days, which I happily did.
What’s there to do to entertain pre-teens for a few workdays in Estevan? The city is slower than usual, and I still had to work, so I decided to take them to work with me. Don’t get me wrong, I didn't mean to marinate them in the office just because I had no other plan. I sincerely believe that it’s an exciting experience. So I received approval from the publisher, and she took it even further and organized us a tour to the printing plant.
We came in on Tuesday, the day when the paper you receive by Wednesday morning is put together. It was the day when in a matter of a few hours, kids could see how pictures on computer screens and .doc files gradually turn into paper pages, get printed and then are stocked up at the door waiting for carriers.
At the beginning of the day, my little guests weren’t too excited (unlike me, filled with energy and enthusiasm to show them how cool it is to make newspapers). And I understand it. I woke them up early and brought them to the office, where the first thing I asked them to do was to proofread a police report and a back-to-school opinion piece (proofreading is not that exciting even for me, let alone kids).
But as the day progressed, they were getting more and more involved. They helped with production and admin work, they checked the pages and did the corrections. They got to do a flashback for the next paper, getting to know all the secrets of that procedure.
So by lunchtime, one of the kids who kept saying she never has an appetite finished her entire meal without doubting it.
While treated like potential employees, they even made a few inside jokes.
The tour to the plant was a culmination. We followed our .pdf version of the newspaper to the plant, learned how it gets plated and watched thousands of Mercury pages running down the towers and turning into a real paper.
By the end of the day, when their mom phoned to check on them, kids, interrupting each other, would tell her about an amazing day they had and how “cool it is to make newspapers.”
When I was in high school, we had a counsellor doing endless tests to help us understand what we want to do in life. I didn't have any real work experience except for taking part in crowd shots for a movie with grandpa, but almost on daily basis, someone would ask me what I wanted to do for work. In reality, I didn't have any understanding of what it takes to do anything as a full-time job.
I knew people went to work every day, but what did they do there all these hours of their lives? Accountants, sales managers, carpenters, engineers, programmers, CEOs, all other specialists and professionals, how were they spending most of their lives? I had no idea.
Did my parents treat their jobs as something really boring for kids to see? I doubt it because they actually liked what they were doing. Maybe, they just didn’t think it would be valuable. But from a personal perspective and on behalf of my friend’s kids I tell you if they would let me into their grown-up world, even if it would be just for one day, it would be priceless, because how else can children learn what it takes to "work?"
(I know St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation had the Ambassadors program before the pandemic allowing high school students considering a medical career to have hands-on experience in the field. But in most cases, it’s not an option.)
So if you do have a chance, put a "take your kids to work day" on your busy schedule. I bet your children will never forget it.
