How to Make “Take Your Child to Work Day” Matter

On every fourth Thursday in April, millions of workplaces gain a few temporary, very cute employees. It’s Take Your Child to Work Day.

Take Your Child to Work Day has been a recognized event for over 30 years, inviting children to spend the day at their parent’s workplace. If you grew up in the 90s or early aughts, you might remember visiting your own parent’s workplace and shadowing their day.

But does the tradition still have a place in the current working world? Between the increase in remote work and the rise in workplace conflict, some people might be tempted to keep Take Your Child to Work Day off their corporate calendars. However, with employee happiness rates just starting to creep out of a four-year slump, now may be a crucial time for HR leaders to re-invest in company culture.

If you’re thinking about starting or rebooting Take Your Child to Work Day at your office, we’ve got you covered. Read on to explore the pros and cons of the event and get inspiration for how your organization can pull it off.

In this article, you’ll find:

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What Is Take Your Child to Work Day?

A special day for including children in their parent’s workplace, Take Your Child to Work Day helps kids learn more about different types of careers while they bond with their parents—it’s a triple win for employee morale, company culture, and children’s education.

The first Take Your Child to Work Day was started by the Ms. Foundation for Women in 1993. Dubbed Take Our Daughters to Work Day, the concept was developed as a way to encourage young girls to pursue careers. Since then, the event has expanded to include all children, and the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day Foundation continues to facilitate an annual day of workplace fun and learning.

Is Take Your Child to Work Day Still a Thing?

Yes, many workplaces still celebrate Take Your Child to Work Day. However, the exact number of workplaces who participate is a little fuzzy, especially since companies don’t always collaborate with the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day Foundation and might observe it on different dates. The Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day Foundation has made some efforts to include remote-working families, and in 2023 hosted a live virtual event with around 1,000 children registered to attend.

According to the foundation, participation rates have been as high as over 40 million children since the annual event began in 1993. However, the AP reports participation rates from 2005 to 2009 were closer to 18 million, and have declined further since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Remote work presents a big challenge for the event—after all, with the increase in parents working from home, every day is already Take Your Child to Work Day. Planning a valuable educational day is tricky enough in person, and organizations may decide it isn’t worth trying it virtually.

Benefits of Take Your Child to Work Day

For some, inviting a bunch of kids into the office may sound like a stressful, ill-advised pursuit. But while organizing Take Your Child to Work Day takes some effort, it can have amazing benefits for kids, employees, and your company.

Children’s Education

The main goal of Take Your Child to Work Day is to expose more kids to potential career paths. Not all children are equally encouraged to pursue all careers—for example, Black, Latina, and Indigenous women earn only 14% of all STEM bachelor’s degrees awarded in the United States.

As when the Ms. Foundation for Women first established the event to bridge the gender gap in the workplace, today’s Take Your Child to Work Day can still be a meaningful way to give all children better access to education and opportunities.

Company Culture

The kids are the priority, but Take Your Child to Work Day can also do a lot for your company. Hosting Take Your Child to Work Day highlights company values around family, work-life balance, education, and community involvement.

Plus, it gives you a chance to show off the fun side of your workplace culture.

Employer Brand

Take Your Child to Work Day is an opportunity to introduce your employer brand to the next generation of workers and start the early stages of your talent pipeline.

Teenagers who have a positive experience at Take Your Child to Work Day, equipped with a foundational knowledge of your organization’s mission, values, and culture, might take an interest in internships and entry-level jobs down the road.

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Reasons to Skip Take Your Child to Work Day

Take Your Child to Work Day is great when done right. But without the proper support or planning, a kid-centric event in the workplace can be disastrous. Here’s a few challenges to think about.

Programming

If your organization doesn’t have the bandwidth to coordinate quality enrichment programs for employees’ children, it simply isn’t worth it to hold Take Your Child to Work Day. Without engaging educational activities, the event could be little more than a group of bored, restless kids and tired parents trying to get through the workday.

If you can’t commit to an entire day, ask yourself whether a smaller-scale family event would be a better fit for your company.

Behavior Problems

Your coworker’s kids might look adorable, but their behavior challenges aren’t so cute. For this reason, some organizations don’t want to invite kids into the workplace—after all, a combination of different parenting styles, children’s varying developmental needs, and the limits of employees’ patience can be a recipe for conflict.

Safety

Consider whether your work environment is safe for children. Dangerous equipment, high-risk activities, and mature subject matter are all red flags for a children’s event. If there’s no reasonable way to mitigate these issues and create a child-friendly environment, it’s best to avoid Take Your Child to Work Day.

Alternatives to Take Your Child to Work Day

If a traditional Take Your Child to Work Day is a no-go for your organization, you can still find other ways to engage with employee families and support children’s education. Two tried-and-true options are family picnics and job fairs.

Can You Do a Remote Take Your Child to Work Day?

If you have a remote or hybrid workforce, a remote Take Your Child to Work Day is still possible. In fact, a remote day could be the perfect compromise for giving kids a valuable experience while avoiding concerns about behavior or safety.

A remote Take Your Child to Work Day can incorporate a mix of independent activities kids can do with their parents, and virtual group activities that kids can do together over video.

Potential activity ideas include:

Don’t forget to plan ahead, and send remote employees a package with workbooks, activity supplies, and some kid-friendly company swag.

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Tips for a Successful Take Your Child to Work Day

Be Inclusive

When you tell employees about Take Your Child to Work Day, clarify that the event is for families of all shapes and sizes and everyone is welcome to participate, including parents, step-parents, foster parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, older siblings, and anyone else who has a child in their life.

Set an Age Range

Clearly communicate a specific age or grade range on the event invitation to avoid any misunderstandings with employees, as the age range of attendees will shape the experience of Take Your Child to Work Day.

If you can’t host a worthwhile event for five-year-olds and teenagers at the same time, it’s best to pick just one age group.

Choose a Theme

Setting a theme for Take Your Child to Work Day helps create more focus for the day and makes the annual event more unique for kids who’ve already attended in the past. You can use the official theme set by Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day or pick a theme that’s more specific to your organization’s mission and values.

For inspiration, here are some previous themes from Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day:

Organize Activities by Age

If you decide to host an all-ages children’s event, create activity options for a range of ages and developmental needs to ensure that every child is given a worthwhile experience. For younger kids, set up activities that accommodate shorter attention spans and focus on simpler concepts. Give older kids the chance to solve interesting problems and offer more in-depth learning opportunities.

Developmental needs also vary among children of the same age, so be sure to clarify that while the activities have suggested ages or grade levels, parents should choose whatever activities are most appropriate for their child.

Assign Roles

Hosting Take Your Child to Work Day should be a group effort among employees at your organization. Ask for volunteers to help lead activities, facilitate sign-in, and manage snacks and supplies.

While people should feel free to opt out of Take Your Child to Work Day, it can be a great team-building opportunity for all employees, whether or not they’re bringing a kid to the event.

Creative Take Your Child to Work Activity Ideas

The success of Take Your Child to Work Day depends on the quality of activities you provide. Here are some fun and educational ideas to get you started.

Activities for Younger Kids

“My Parent’s Job” Poster

Ask children to create a poster about their parent’s (or caregiver’s) job. This activity can help guide a child’s learning experience as they shadow their parent’s day, plus it gives the parent a fun keepsake to take home. Kids can use words and pictures to answer prompts like:

If there’s time, have the kids give a brief presentation to their parent’s coworkers, so everyone can learn what their colleague really does all day.

Design an Ad

This arts and crafts activity is an accessible, engaging way to introduce young children to creative professions like marketing or design. Provide kids with poster paper, stickers, markers, and printouts of your company’s logo or mascot and have them design their own advertisements.

For the youngest participants, you can make it as simple as a company-themed coloring page that they can embellish with their own designs.

Scavenger Hunt

Challenge the kids to a workplace scavenger hunt. Make the scavenger hunt interesting by adding some interactive items, like “find your parent’s desk” or “get a high-five from the CEO.” Just be sure to check with coworkers in advance before adding them to the scavenger hunt list.

Make a Sales Pitch

Train an adorable junior sales team, and teach the kids how to make a sales pitch. Describe the basic benefits of your company’s product or service, and the types of people who buy it (if your real product isn’t interesting for kids, switch it to something kid-friendly, like candy bars). Ask them how they would persuade potential buyers, encouraging them to think outside the box by using stories or jokes to frame their sales pitch.

Once they’re ready, have your young salespeople give their pitch to different employees and see how many “sales” they can close.

Activities for Teens and Tweens

Live AMA with Company Leaders

Put some of your leaders in the hot seat with an “ask me anything” interview. In the morning, have teens submit questions about careers, education, and anything else they might be curious about.

Getting the questions in advance is ideal, since it gives you the chance to curate the most valuable topics and weed out anything irrelevant or repetitive. For the AMA panel, try to recruit a dynamic group of company leaders with varying backgrounds and areas of expertise, so the kids can hear from a range of perspectives.

Create a Marketing Campaign

Have a group of teens develop their own marketing campaign. Working with either the company’s real product or a fictional one, ask the kids to identify pain points, develop a messaging strategy, and write and design their own ads.

For an even more involved version of this activity, employees can share pretend results, like engagement levels or marketing leads, and guide the teens in interpreting the results and applying it to their campaigns.

Department Show-and-Tell

Let the teens take on the role of executive leadership and review what your employees have been working on. Ask a few departments in your organization to give presentations, either an abbreviated version of a real presentation or a summary of a recent project (try to cherry-pick topics that appeal to young people).

The teens, with help from your organization’s leaders, can ask questions, give feedback, and suggest next steps. This is a fun way for kids to learn about the organization in more detail while practicing some critical thinking skills. Plus, some employees might appreciate getting a fresh set of eyes on their ongoing projects.

Shadow the Work Day

Consider holding a classic Take Your Child to Work Day and having teenagers shadow their parents. While this can be a boring activity for young kids, older teens might enjoy getting a peek into working life. Plus, for teens thinking about life after high school, experiencing a real work day can give them some truly valuable insights.

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