Take Your Kids to Work Day

The official take your daughters and sons to work day was April 26 this year.  That shouldn't stop you, however, from taking your daughter or son to work on another day, assuming you're not pulling them out of school to do so.  Taking your child to work is important for dads with daughters and especially for dads who work in science, engineering, math, or any other field that is male dominated.  Doing so shows your daughter that it doesn't matter if your male or female as long as you have the desire and the drive to achieve success.  

As a teacher in the male dominated science field of physics and astronomy I'm placing a greater emphasis on introducing my two daughters to science.  At my daughters' age, taking them to an actual work day would be very boring for them, but there are other work related things I can do with them.  For example, yesterday I took my oldest daughter to my two physics lab rooms to clean and organize.  She brought along a backpack of toys and coloring books, but barely touched them.  She was much more interested in the science equipment we were putting away.  We spent 4 hours yesterday afternoon cleaning up and not once did she complain and ask to leave.  In fact, she spent more time asking what things were and asking what she could carry to help.  I was definitely a proud daddy yesterday.  

I should add that these two lab rooms have not been cleaned in several years so there were piles of "junk" in the back of the rooms.  I even found this, buried at the bottom of one of the piles:

What TV's used to look like.

My daughter asked what this was and I told her it's a TV.  Her response was "it doesn't look like a TV"!  

We both had fun yesterday afternoon and bringing my daughter to work with me turned a sucky job into a fun experience.  So if you can, find time to take your daughters and sons to work with you from time to time.