No, I’m not going to advocate for child labor here, what I am thinking about is how mysterious and foreign that world of “work” can seem to a child. Mom and/or Dad go off to this place called “work” and then they come home. My own children had a hard time figuring out exactly what it was that I “did” for work—even though as a single mom, they often had to go with me or camp out in my office on sick days. I thought we could explore different ways to introduce our children to what we do for work so they will have a more realistic understanding of jobs and work.
The fact is, some workplaces aren’t appropriate or safe for a child. My dad worked as a logger in the woods when I was growing up and while we couldn’t actually go to work with him, we did get to go to the work site occasionally on weekends. He would have to do some mechanical repairs to some of the huge equipment and we would all take a picnic and get up very early on a Saturday morning and spend the morning far out in the woods on an actual logging site. With my parents to oversee things and teach us safety, we were able to get some idea of what it was that he did for his job.
I think it’s important to point out and educate children as we’re moving around in the community—all the different jobs and people working we come in contact with. Most of us have probably heard of the child who thinks that his teacher lives at school and that is who she is all the time (I remember having this conversation with more than one of my children). Helping children to understand all the different types of jobs and ways people earn a living can hopefully give them some appreciation of the world of work.
Additionally, in my own family, I knew that as a single mom, working outside the home was always going to be a reality and, chances are, it will be a reality for my children as adults–so I wanted it to be normalized. I didn’t want them to think that I “preferred” being at work to being with them or that work was a world where they weren’t welcome. They could see their photos on my desk, their art work on my bulletin board and meet the coworkers who also knew their names. Instead of having this separate, mysterious place called “Mom’s work”—it became just an integrated extension of our family life.
See Also: Parenting From Work and Are There REALLY “Mommy Wars”?