I’ve never given much thought to Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day. I think the idea originally started out as a way to empower girls to see themselves as a viable part of the workforce and to expose them to all the things a girl can do.
Somewhere along the way, someone decided that it’s important for boys as well. Not only do they need professional role models but it’s almost as important for them to see the work their mother does as well as their father.
Since my husband and I both work from home, though, the idea of keeping Evan home for the day seemed like it would end up with him sitting watching me answer emails, edit photos and videos, and write (which he’s actually seen me do multiple times).
But this year, I had an invitation that I thought would be an absolutely perfect way to show him, in more depth, some of the things that I do.
As part of my ongoing relationship with Responsibility.org and specifically the Ask Listen Learn campaign (by the way, did you see my piece last week, Parenting with Humor and Grace?), I was invited to attend their Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day Event in Washington, DC in the Russell Senate Office Building.
The event is designed to educate attendees about how important a healthy lifestyle is in preventing underage drinking and provide parents with the most effective strategies they can use to start open and honest conversations about alcohol and underage drinking from early childhood to young adulthood.
Evan simply saw it as a great excuse to not go to school, spend the day with me, and have a little fun. But I was determined to make it a workday! Here’s how.
The Night Before
I gave him a quick intro about how Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram (my primary platforms all work). And we did a couple of test runs.
Tweeting with GIFs
This is a demonstration tweet. pic.twitter.com/sFp97utnhK
— Fadra Nally (@allthingsfadra) April 27, 2017
Making Up Hashtags
— Fadra Nally (@allthingsfadra) April 27, 2017
And we focused heavily on Instagram Stories as I thought that might be an easy, pain-free way to ease him into social media.
The Day Of
Oh, he was ready to start the day! Start it like this…
BUSTED! I told him we had to get to work! Although I do spend some of my day playing games on my phone every day if I’m being honest.
After a brutal walk with the dogs (which we documented on IG Stories), we decided to treat ourselves to breakfast out, at a place with free wifi, of course.
He was inspired to capture our meal on both Instagram
and Twitter!
Just finished a delicious breakfast at @panerabread! #evan pic.twitter.com/nLBSsBnq3x
— Fadra Nally (@allthingsfadra) April 27, 2017
I showed him how to tag the brand and luckily Panera was ON their game because they responded to our tweet!
Then I bored him by showing him how I had to keep up with all of my email. Yes, I went through all of the press releases, the pitches for me to publish third party content, but I did get an invitation to a movie screening!
Off to the event
Finally, we were done and I think he was done so we jumped in the car and headed to DC. On our way in, we stopped and took in the lovely view of the U.S. Capitol and reminded him it might be a great opportunity to take some photos.
We made it to the event and goofed off for a bit. At this point, he seemed to have forgotten about social media so I gently reminded him that we should grab a few photos.
After the event, he said he was exhausted and we headed home. But not before this next task…
Running errands
I told him that usually my day starts out busy in the morning and then I’m usually “off work” for a couple of hours while I take care of household and personal things. But after dinner, my work seems to ramp up again. It’s when I get a lot of my writing done and in this case, a video update on my gardening project!
That was a perfect excuse to show him Facebook Live.
His overall thoughts (and mine)
I kept thinking he was bored or disinterested. It turns out that he was either afraid of alienating my followers (ha!) or simply just didn’t know what to say. I guess that’s why social media is often so personal.
I did ask if he now understood why I end up spending so much time on my phone. I’m not just goofing off. I’m running my business! And he did. I realized how much work goes into all the aspects of social media BESIDES blogging.
He told me over and over again how much fun he had with me. I’m not sure if it was because it was a “work day” or if he got out of school or simply because he got to spend a day with me. It’s probably a little of all three but I’ll take it!
2 comments
What a great post! It was wonderful to see you and Evan yesterday and he did an outstanding job on your social channels! 🙂
Same here! I think it’s the first time I’ve ever seen your entire family in one place! At least I’ll see you soon in Orlando.