When my children were young I had the privilege of being a stay at home mom, until I became a working from home mom. Even with one parent at home, my children missed their father while he was at work.
To make Dad’s going to work a more positive experience for them, here are a few things that we did that really helped.
1. We would visit Dad’s work every now and then, bringing a lunch that we all could share. We also would take goodies for his co-workers.
2. We got to know some of Dad’s work team and had a few of them and their families over for dinner.
3. In the evening Dad would share stories of his day, maybe an interesting customer or some mishap that happened. The children loved hearing these stories.
4. Dad would make time to take the children on a tour, explaining how the business ran.
5. Dad always talked positive about his job in front of the children.
As a result of doing these things two of our children, as they became work age, were able to get part time jobs at Dad’s work. By that time they knew a lot about the business and knew several of the people who worked there.
There are many things parents can do to make the connection for their children with their places of work to make them feel better about them being gone. Here are a few others that I found.
* Take your children’s artwork to the office, pin it up and take a picture for them to see. Also take pictures of their workplace if their children cannot visit it.
* Tell them about a work project and when it is completed celebrate with them.
* Call them from work at the same time each day.
* If you travel, send an email or text with a picture of you wherever you are. You can even hold a sign telling them you love them.
* Mail them something from work, maybe a note on letterhead, sent in a business envelope. They will be so excited to receive mail from you.
* If you travel extensively, buy a map and have push pins with different color heads and mark on the map where you will be. This not only shows them where you are, but they will learn a bit about geography.
It is very important to make a parents work “a positive” for children.
Anyway you can connect them will help to do this. This is also true for spouses and extended family; they want to know more about where we are each day.
What ways have you been able to connect your family with your work?
10/17/14
Comments