Take Your Child to Work Day (cont.)

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One thing neither of my children could resist was the allure of a vending machine, right there! To avoid getting them too hopped up on sugary foods and drinks, I explained they could go to the machine only twice each day...once halfway through the morning, before lunch, and once halfway through the afternoon, after lunch. If your child is old enough to do math, then it's an interesting prospect to hand the kid a pocket of change and have her figure out how much is there, how much she needs for what she wants, and how much will be left over. If your child is not old enough to do math, he gets a dollar...fifty cents each time.  (Do try to steer the kids toward those super-yummy, crunchy pretzels instead of those boring old peanut-butter cups!)

Activities

If you're able to prepare yourself for the fact that your child will be with you at the office, you'll have the opportunity to bring along some quiet toys or books to keep her happy. Sometimes, however, it's a last minute decision and you have to improvise. You might spend a moment searching Google.com for free puzzles and pictures to color, which you can print out and give your child to keep busy with.  (http://www.free-online-word-search-puzzles.com is a favorite of mine.) It might take five minutes of your work time, but it saves you TONS of time in the long run because it keeps your child busy. Find colored writing utensils, markers, highlighters, etc., and let the child use these as throughout the day to draw pictures, write, etc...these items all have to be kept near the child's "desk."

How many of us watch the clock at work? Well, making a conscious effort to help your child do so will make your day go more smoothly. Map out a schedule (and if your child can't tell time yet, then draw the position of the clock's hands instead of listing the time).  Your schedule might look something like this:

• 9:00 Get to work
   
• 9:30 Take a walk (introduce child to co-workers)
   
• 10:00 First sticker for good behavior
   
• 10:30 Vending machine
   
• 11:00 Second sticker for good behavior
   
• 11:30 Puzzle time, game time, or other designation that makes it look like your child gets to do something else for awhile.
   
• 12:00 Lunchtime and third sticker for good behavior...and so on.

Breaking things down this way makes the day look shorter and more exciting for your child, and he'll always know what he's supposed to be doing and what comes next. Make sure you take your kids someplace you usually like to go for lunch, whether that's McDonald's drive-through or that pasta place up the street.

Find small things you can ask your child do to. My 6-year-old was proud of himself all morning when I let him hit the "send" button on the fax machine, as I was sending a fax. "You sent a FAX!" I said. Later, at home, he bragged to everyone about how he had sent a fax, "all by himself." I also dumped a jar of colored paper clips on the floor and asked him to separate them by color. He also licked envelopes shut and put stamps on them for me, and helped me clean my office (picking up things on the rug and throwing them away, watering the plants, throwing away the junk mail).

My 8-year-old, who can read and write, was admittedly easier to keep busy because she had word puzzles, books, and could write letters to family members or stories to read her brother later. My 6-year-old, however, needed to be kept busy with simple office tasks and a few quiet toys from home. It was the hourly sticker incentive and the limiting of interruptions using pennies, though, which really helped out.

Make no mistake...the afternoon will drag. The excitement of a new place will have worn off, and your child WILL become bored and want to go home. This is the best point at which to ask your child to take a nap. Both of my children, who haven't taken naps in years, were both happy to go to sleep (especially after I made sure they had a poultry lunch that included tryptophans)...and I actually got some work done! At the end of the day, take a few minutes together to walk around and wave goodnight to your co-workers. The children and the co-workers will all probably enjoy it, it re-enforces the concept of politeness, and it reminds your colleagues that your kids didn’t really disturb anything today.

-Heidi McDonald