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Daughter To Work

Thurs, April 28: 'Daughters & Sons to Work' Day.

Daughters! Don't dads love 'em!

I took Anna one year and I couldn't have picked a better day: I was the only parent in the department so no one else was really conscious of sprogs.

It was a bright sunny day and by happy coincidence a pot luck lunch had been set up with our neighboring CoerCia team (Motto: "We're customer-centric like a cat is *mouse* centric") followed by an extreme-frisbee comp.

Being the first time, I didn't know that on arrival the darlings are whisked away for a briefing on what the company is about, followed by a round-room description by each child of what mom or dad actually does in the mothership.

All credit to Anna, she was one of only two who had an inkling. The other was some HR progeny who explained that mama "fired people" which, according to A, raised a few eyebrows from the assembled staffers. Pretty succinct summary, I'd say, but we do try to cotton wool that stuff.

Thence to their parents where I don't know what the others did but I had primed Anna to be "useful". I was working on a satisfaction survey at the time and needed some slave labor data entry which I'd coached A in the basics.

After she'd been tapping for 10 minutes under pater's stern eye, the piratical Dave (seen background) came up and looked over her shoulder and pronounced it "heavy" and wouldn't she prefer to be gaming (of which he had a bundle)?

Nervous glance at Dad.

"No, that's OK."

D: "Say what? You're not doing your *dad*'s work, are you? Yo guys! I'll call security and someone call CPS."

So much for my efforts to present a cool image.

Come the pot luck, Anna helped out during which she maintained her abused waif look as Dave made sure that all and sundry knew of cruel Papa's scheme to slack as his babe toiled in the e-vineyard. You can imagine the ribbing I got *there*.

Post déjeuner, out everyone else went - plus Anna - to Cajola's verdant pastures for Frisbees akimbo (if that's correct usage; if not, BB will pounce soon enough. Kidding, sir)

Next day at school, they were agog for a glimpse of e-commerce in action. So, what do they *do*?. Anna hadn't missed a trick:

• Games: Anyone caught formulating on Excel is reported to the 'authorities'.
• Fun: communal lunches that have no end, followed by
• Totally cool Frisbee flipping
• Plus, dad's hot manager showed her how to run in a skirt

Actually not a bad summary of the work day, but I had hoped to present a rather more professional image.

On this subject, did anyone hear the NPR discussion of extending it to Take a Parent, or **Friend** to work?? Much more interesting.