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Subscribe to RSSThe Squawk Box's children tell viewers what they learned from spending the day on the set and in the television studio on "Take Your Kids to Work" day.
Thursday is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work day, although perhaps you didn't notice.
The annual event, started 20 years ago as a way to expose girls and young women to workplace and career opportunities, has attracted less attention in recent years.
Perhaps it’s another thing to blame on The Great Recession and slow economic recovery. The high joblessness that has plagued the economy for five years has left many parents without work.
It’s also left those who are lucky enough to have a job nervous about holding onto it. That may mean it's not a great time for your child to say something embarrassing to your boss, spill soda on the keyboard or keep you from getting a day’s worth of work done.
There’s also the matter of how work has changed. Even two years ago, The New York Times noted that many kids already see their parents working a lot, because so many people now take their work home.
There have also been other criticisms of the event. Julie Drizin, director of the Journalism Center on Children and Families, wrote this week that she wouldn’t be participating after realizing that people who work long hours in low-wage jobs probably aren’t able to, either.
“I’ve come to believe that Take Your Daughters And Sons to Work Day is largely a feel-good exercise for the privileged,” she wrote.
Of course, many will participate. Carolyn McKecuen, president of the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day Foundation, said that while some organizations have stopped participating, other companies have joined.
She doesn’t think there has been a big drop in participation, although she conceded the group has not done an exact accounting.
That’s partly because the organization, an offshoot of the Ms. Foundation, has itself been hit hard by the recession. It now operates on about a quarter of its former budget because of a drop in big donors.
McKecuen said some have used the day to speak frankly about the current economy. She said she has heard of unemployed parents getting together with their children to discuss how to write a resume and look for a job.
Times have changed since the event began 20 years ago solely for girls, later expanding to include boys.
McKecuen, who has two boys, thinks including both genders has been valuable.
“Guys need to know if they want to be a nurse they can be a nurse. They don’t have to fly a plane,” she said.
“The reason we started this has changed very little over the years,” she said. “It was designed to expose youth to what (their parents) do in their lives during the workday, and the demands and the possibilities in the workplace.”
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As a teacher, what I see is many students not really attending work with their parents but staying home instead. It's more like a sanctioned skip school day.
Easy fix. Treat it like an individual field trip. Kids must write an essay on their observations at parents' work (or, depending on age, report on it to the rest of the class) or get counted absent (and suffer the usual consequences of missing a day for no reason.) Jeez, if you can't figure that one out, maybe you should consider a different profession.
Take kids to a place of WORK??? Pretty much passe....take 'em someplace useful...like the unemployment check collecting office....the foodstamps pickup office....the "I'd rather protest than work" office...the "I'm entitled to everything office"...etc. Now that's the America we've come to love....not those lousy folks who work hard and make something of themselves...we hate them.
I wish I had paying work to bring my kids to. I have to answer my son where I get my money to live while I am trying to teach him the value of work. 13 million of us wish this was the least of our problems. Anybody listening or are we getting another discussion from the president about the value of work. How can we value what we still need?
I am sure you do prefer working, but you really can instill in your kids the value of work even if you are not currently working. How about taking your kids to the library computer to explain how to write the resume that may get you (and later, perhaps them) a job? How about volunteering with your kids at a homeless shelter to explain that you are all lucky enough to have a roof over your head (which I assume you do if you are posting here?) How about picking up trash at your local park to explain to your kids that we are all in this community together and are responsible for working to maintain it? Better than bitching about a President who is trying to fix the economic crisis precipitated by the prior President's getting us into two unfunded wars. Better than complaining about a President without whose efforts you would have had months less of unemployment benefits.
I think its a bad idea to stop this mainly because they need to see there is a purpose for working otherwise the Kids will have no concept of money whatsoever and when they are grown they will need this concept
In China many day tak child work day
For those increasingly fewer of you who have jobs where you can take your kids, do so. The reality, however is more and more Americans work jobs where this is not possible. Sometimes the fortunate of us forget that not everyone works a '9-5' office job. Most of the "new job opportunities" were added in the low hourly wage service sector. So no, you probably cannot take your child with you when you go to work your 6 hour shift at Applebee's or Target. What about the parents who work jobs where for safety and or security reasons, your child simply would be forbidden to go. I was a mailhandler in a distribution center for the US Postal Service, not safe for the kids to be running around with forklifts and potentially dangerous high-speed mail sorting equipment in operation. What about EMTs, city bus drivers, railroad engineers without seniority so they are still on 24-hour call, and municipal waste handlers? Their jobs are very important , but cannot be observed by children in tow. I agree with some earlier posts that this whole "Day" is a privilege for an increasingly smaller elite. Most people's jobs do not fall into this narrow category, and just serves to outline the growing caste-like system in this country.
C'mon we should all take our kids to work so they can learn the value of servitude that they will be required to do. Take your girls to work so they can learn that they are less valuable than there male counterparts. Yeah, let's take our kids to work to show them the value and dignity of working long hours for less pay, so they may learn how to not fight for whats right when it comes to workers rights that unions use to provide. Let's take our kids to work so they can see why mommy and daddy aren't home for dinner or "family" time. Let's take our kids to work so when they come to evict mommy and daddy from home they can see how slavery is entrenched in the American psychology and we workers are the perfect workforce for the very few.
Kepp up that great positive attitude...You will go far with it!
Children would gain more benefit if parents taught their children about earning money, about charity, about kindness, rather than raising the shallow children they drag to work and then pretend to themselves and others that they are preparing them for life. These kids and young adults start off with cell phones from the time they are toddlers and all they have to do is ask for expensive clothes, shoes, and other luxuries which they don't take care of or appreciate. Few of them do chores or contribute in any meaningful way to the household. In light of that, how much good does taking them to work with a parent for a day actually impact them? If you want to prepare them for the working world and motivate them, teach them to save for things they want and to value money by helping you to budget for things they want like prom dresses or birthday gifts for friends. While you feel generous and like a good provider, you are actually hurting them more than you know by sheltering them from the harshness of this world. How is it the 20 year-olds do not know how to wash a load of laundry or that tires are not covered by auto insurance? Take your child to work day is meaningless compared to adult conversation and preparing them for life in a responsible and caring way. Be a parent, not a friend.
I believe that "Take Your Kids to Work" day, should be replaced with "Stay @ home & learn to mooch off of the governmaent day"
I think it's amusing to think that kids are interested in work of any kind. If it's not related to Facebook or an iPhone app, most kids are not interested.
Take your child to work one day a year? What a terrible idea!!
What parent would possibly want to spend a few more hours with their child when the child could be pushed off to others for the day? Anyone who believes that their child could not afford to miss a day at school has not spent a day at school with their child. Maybe we should have a "Take your parent to school" day!!!
I am betting that there are around 15 million folks who would love to take their child to work, if the 15 million had jobs to take the child to.
Just a thought.......
It depends upon the job and the kid. Can the kid be quiet enough so that other people around the parent can get their work done? If not, try bringing the kid in on a day when not many people are around.
I would think that if schools and parents do their jobs, kids should know that they have many options available to them for their careers. It's not like this is the 1970's when girls thought they could only be teachers, secretaries, waitresses, hair stylists, nurses, or flight attendants.
Years ago I took my daughter to work for this. She learned a lot....as in she didn't want to do what I do! :)
Yes, it's a good idea to bring kids to work, so they can get to see something that they probably won't get to see when they get older- PEOPLE doing all the work, instead of machines.
I guess if your a drug dealer its fun to watch their little faces light up when you do a drive by...........
Are you "kidding" me??????? Just take a moment to add up all the wasted,unproductive time already tossed in a "day's" work in America....water cooler break room B.S.,smoke breaks(the REAL production killer),tardiness,personal electronic device addiction,and on and on. Now you want to bring the kids to work? Odds are,they learn nothing,and disrupt everything at best! Yet another stupid liberal idea....jeeeeeeezzzzzze!!!!!!!
smoke breaks? really! When is the last time YOU worked a day?
I think it was better in the beginning before it became a big "fun day of activities" for the kids. I took my daughter to work at BankOne/Chase executive offices and she attended all my meetings (poor thing), and joined us for lunch. After that, she would periodically come to the office to help me out with filing and projects. She was in real meetings about real projects, and although some of it was "greek" to her, she participated in the cadence of the work. Yes this was before we merged with Chase and became a 12 hour a day sweatshop!
In my 20 years of professional experience, of which I worked for two different Fortune 50 companies, I have never been in a position where this event was encouraged; in fact, it was always the opposite. Every place I worked discouraged participation in this day.
The best reason to do this is to let them see the negativity of people today. Maybe this will give them reason to change the world or to give up like the people who put down everything and wonder why everything sucks.
I would prefer to believe that people simply getting smarter and choosing not to have children at all is the reason for the fading away of such an asinine institution