Put Your Child To Work Day

So we just had that Take Your Child to Work Day annual event this past Thursday. It's the one that started as Take Your Daughter to Work Day, the goal of which was to to "encourage employees...to invite a pre-pubescent-aged girl to spend the day with the employee at his or her workplace, with the aim of exposing girls to various career opportunities"(Wikipedia.org). Women have historically been limited in occupational opportunities, so this event was organized to improve self-esteem and encourage girls to pursue careers they might not have been aware of as options. Apparently, people got all up in arms about the fact that something that was designed to exclusively encourage young females (who are clearly in need of it), did not also include young males. God forbid we make little girls feel special in any way.

Is it just me, or does it now feel like the initial reason for and spirit of this annual event has been lost? When I worked at the hospital, I remember people bringing their kids to work along with toys, coloring books, and other "pass the time" items. They'd situate them at an empty desk and there they'd sit for the whole of the day playing with their stupid toys and making me uncomfortable with their creepy stares. And I thought, "Well, isn't the point of this exercise to inform children about the type of work you do? Shouldn't they be somehow involved your workday, in all its excitement and tedium?" I knew the day had lost all meaning when people I worked with started bringing their infants into work with them on that day. It irritated the shit out of me to have to hear a baby wailing while I slaved away at a job I hated so much to begin with. But I guess kids are never too young for us to begin exposing them to the grim realities of a lifetime of hard work. In fact, I propose a new annual event. Better yet, make it a daily one. Put Your Child To Work Day.

Child Labor Laws be damned. After all the crumbs I've vacuumed, toilets I've scrubbed, ass I've wiped, she fucking owes me.

Earning her keep.

Put a little muscle into it there, Toots.

I don't do windows. But she does.

And then she has the nerve to say, "Mom, when are you going to help me clean?"