PLEASE Take My Children To Work Day -- June 26, 2006

by Karen Walrond (Subscribe to Karen Walrond's posts) May 3rd 2006 3:59PM

Categories: Work Life, Health & Safety Babies, Media

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You've heard of Take Your Kids To Work Day -- the day where working parents bring their children to their jobs, so that the kids can see what it is mom or dad does all day?

Well, now, Jen Singer, the creative mind behind MommaSaid.net, is organizing and petitioning for a new holiday -- Please Take My Children To Work Day. In her words:

The average American works 1,978 hours a year, or 38 hours a week -- the highest rate in the industrialized world.
Slackers.
Stay-at-home moms work upwards of 14 hours a day, seven days a week. Plus, they're on call 24/7. That's nearly 100 hours a week with no vacation days, no sick days and no holidays -- until now.
On Monday, June 26th, MommaSaid.net will sponsor the fourth annual " Please Take My Children to Work Day," a holiday for part- and full-time stay-at-home mothers.
Moms around the world are encouraged to take the day off, or at least part of it, by finding a relative, neighbor, friend or babysitter to take care of the kids.

Do you not love this idea? Apparently, so do several American state governors: so far, the governors of Hawaii, New Jersey, Michigan, Kentucky and Wisconsin have proclaimed June 26th, 2006 as a Please Take My Children To Work Day holiday. If you're into it, consider petitioning your state governor.

Or, at the very least, engage a babysitter for the day. You deserve it.

Comments (7)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Lisa 5-03-2006 @ 4:30PM

I am slightly offended by the idea that stay-at-home moms work more than working outside the home moms do. I may spend 38-45 hours a week at my job outside of the home but I also spend an average of 6 hours working at home each week day. Then there are the weekends. Besides being away from my daughter the hardest thing about working full time is that I have 1 1/2 hours each night to do things like clean, laundry, pay bills, prep for the following day and shop for anything and everything etc.

I think Please take my children to work day is a great idea. All Moms need a day off. We all do way to much.

lauren 5-03-2006 @ 5:17PM

Cute! I sent my four-year-old to work with her dad last week (then met them for lunch and brought her back home), and it was a great morning for everyone!

Kate 5-04-2006 @ 7:49AM

My 2-year-old BEGS to "go work with Daddy" every morning. I'll have to forward him this article and see if he can take her! Then again, I don't know that the Navy would think this is as great of an idea as I do. :-)

Jen Singer 5-05-2006 @ 4:08PM

Certainly ALL mothers deserve a day off. But I wanted to give at-home moms in particular a break, because these days, they spend so much time with their kids and so little time for themselves.

If you plan to take the day -- or part of it -- please let me know at MommaSaid.net.

trish 5-06-2006 @ 5:53AM

I have to agree with the first commenter. Being a SAHM or a working-outside-the-home mom doesn't really decrease the hours you work, only the type of work done in the 8 or 9 hours you're out of the house. There seems to be a bit of a backlash against mom's who work outside the house these days, when none of us get off easy.

Michelle 5-07-2006 @ 3:02PM

Having been a work outside the home Mom and now a SAHM, neither is easier. They both have their own unique benefits. For example, when I worked outside the home, I got to pee without 2 pairs of eyes watching. I also got to go more than 30 seconds without hearing "MOmmy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. . . . "I didn't feel like I spent the entire day yelling at my 3 year old or telling my 2 year old "No" I always missed my daughter, even though she was just down the hall, she was always sick, she never got to see her Daddy, because he worked horrible hours and we had a hellacious commute. The biggest difference was I got more help from my hubby (plus we only had one child)

Now, I get to see both my precious babies ALL DAY, EVERY DAY, tend to their EVERY need, they see their Daddy for a while every day, my daughter is hardly ever sick, BUT, I get to be everybody's maid, chauffeur, nurse, therapist, cook, laundry lady, social secretary, personal shopper and I think that hubby thinks that because I don't "work" I have all this extra time, when actually I have less, because I have a 3.5 yr old precocious daughter and a 20 mos old preemie who both require A LOT of my time and attention! And neither one of my children ever sleep, so I haven't had any real sleep since I was about 6 mos preggo with my daughter.

As Moms, we are always on call, there are no sick days, no I just don't feel like it days. You can't just call it in, like you can to an office job, you are always on, no matter what you may feel like or what your hubby may have done to tick you off, you still have to parent.

Will somebody take my kids to work, please? I need a nap!

Jen Singer 5-08-2006 @ 11:03AM

Actually, Salary.com just released a study that said that the time working moms spend after work and on weekends caring for house and home is worth some $85,000. Certainly, working moms deserve a day off, too.

But I chose to highlight stay-at-home moms, because they often don't feel they deserve time off. After all, it's a privilege to stay home with your kids these days, so you'd better not complain when so many mothers wish they could be home.

I wanted to show that at-home motherhood isn't about eating bon-bons and watching Oprah, as some folks might believe. It can be tedious, monotonous and exhausting. I hope that though the holiday, at-home moms (and their husbands) will realize that they do indeed deserve a day off.