This coming Thursday, April 28th is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work day. I think this is a wonderful event. What better way to expose children to the various types of jobs that will be available to them to consider as a career? I remember well being involved in establishing this event at the bank I worked at during the ’80s. At that time it was Take Our Daughters to Work, since women were just beginning to assume critical positions in the corporate world, and what better way to inspire our daughters to view us as role models outside of the home? We entertained about 140 kids that day exposing the children to all aspects of the banking world. Flash forward 25+ years, I learned recently that a few of those children are now managers and leaders in the bank, overseeing multimillion dollar projects/businesses.

For many Glam-Mothers, we may not have the opportunity to share our working environment with our grandchildren since they will most likely be joining their parents on Thursday. If your grandchildren are not being taken to work by their parents, perhaps you will consider taking your grandchildren. As the saying goes “the children are our future.” We live in a society where our grandchildren are influenced so much by YouTube, reality, TV, electronic games, pop artists, etc. I think it’s critical to give them a more balanced and realistic view of the work world — expose them to the real heroes who are making it happen every day. Who knows: exposing the child to your world as a Realtor, community organizer, entrepreneur, etc., can potentially launch the next big invention that will have an impact on how we live. Will your grandchild find the cure to cancer, solve the oil crisis, invent the next Facebook, develop the next
version of the iPad?

As Glam-Mothers, there are numerous roles we play in our grandchildren’s lives: supporter, stress buffer, favorite chef, banker, and historian. However, I think the role of challenging our grandchildren to be visionaries and to think beyond their wildest dreams is just as important. We can coach and supply our grandchildren with a wealth of courage to pursue their dreams with unbridled passion. To remind our grandchildren they will have peaks and valleys, to remind them it is OK to fail because through failing we become stronger and learn how strong we truly are. To pursue their dream will require hard work,
persistence and unwavering commitment.

So on Thursday, take your granddaughter/son to work with you to expose them to a view of your work world. And if your children are taking them on Thursday, perhaps you can volunteer to take someone else’s child or better yet take your grandchild on another day!