Does Your Child Know What You Do?
January 9th 2009 00:17
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Yesterday, I had a very enlightening conversation with my 8-year old; she asked me to describe what my job is. It made me think, that even if our children knows what our jobs are ("Mom's a writer, Dad's an engineer", etc.) they may not fully comprehend what we really do for a living. This is what makes "Take Your Kids to Work Day" very important, which unfortunately isn't so popular where we live.
So I told my little girl how I had to convince my parents to let me pursue Creative Writing instead of Nursing; how I felt when I published my first short story and how I continue to work hard to become a better writer. You should've seen the look of amazement and pride on her face, it was priceless. Afterwards I told my husband what happened and added; "Now it's your turn..."
I saw a feature on CNN a few weeks ago where they profiled some of the richest people in the world. One guy stood out for me; he was a multi-millionaire who runs a successful business, owns several beautiful homes across the globe and has a number of expensive cars. But, his kids still do chores in order to get their allowance; he also said that when he dies, he will donate most of his wealth to charity. When asked why, he replied that he thinks it's important for his kids to learn the value of working and to develop strong work ethics.
Many of us work very hard to provide for our families; we want to give our kids the things we were deprived of when we were young. But sometimes in the process we forget to teach them the importance of hard work. Many children today expect instant gratification. I realized that as parents some of the most important lessons we can teach our child is to be a strong, independent individual who has initiative, is industrious and open to challenges. Talking about our jobs on a deeper level, including all the obstacles we had to contend with, will help instill respect, pride and admirable work ethics in our children.
So go ahead, start the conversation.
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