Happy Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day (April 26th). I’m guessing this one caught you by surprise since there are no trees, eggs, or cakes to decorate. But if you think about it… it’s not a bad day to celebrate.
Now I could GUILT you into taking your child to work with you tomorrow, but honestly it sounds too hard and I’m not sure your child would like it. So here’s what I’m proposing as a slight variation of the day that I call, “Do a Job WITH Your Daughter or Son Day.”
I know what you’re thinking, “That doesn’t sound any easier!!!” Oh, I know it doesn‘t… and won‘t be. I know there are times one of my children wants to work with me and if I let them, it takes about five times longer because I have to stop to explain, re-do, explain again, and then the finished product looks terrible.
In fact, I know dads and moms who never have their children help them do anything because it’s just so much easier and better to do it themselves. But when we skip having our children help we all miss out (them and us).
I got a letter from a dad who was saying that he and HIS father put up paneling in a basement and his dad (who was unskilled with a hammer) nailed one of the sheets the wrong direction so that when you looked at it, the whole room had the lines going vertically except that one sheet.
I would have ripped that sheet off and redone it quicker than you can say, “Chip and Joanna Gaines,” but this amazing son left it!!! He told me, “Every time I look at that hideously wrong piece of paneling I think of my dad and how we worked together.”
What a great perspective – and one that I want to have with my children – because it’s never about the project but about the people who work on the project.
So, plan a little project in the next couple of days and do it WITH your children. It might be cleaning out the landscape beds, painting a bedroom that needs it, washing all the windows, or hanging a few sheets of paneling in the basement. And when (not if) they mess up, forget a spot, or hang a sheet the wrong way, let it serve as a reminder that you did it together.
Go have an adventure!
PS – Have a son or daughter who is graduating soon and still unsure about God’s direction for their lives? Then you need to get this easy to read book, “What’s Next? Affirming God’s Plan for your Highschooler.”
