Written By: Mariann Johnson, VP of Strategic Partnerships

Take Your Child to Work Day—Every Day

When most people think of Take Your Child to Work Day, they imagine a once-a-year event where kids shadow their parents, tour offices, and maybe get a snack from the breakroom vending machine. But what if we treated every day as an opportunity to show our kids what work looks like, and more importantly, why it matters?

The Mystery of “What Parents Actually Do”

We recently partnered with a school district to survey their students about career awareness, and the results were eye-opening: most middle schoolers had no idea what their parents did for a living. That gap matters more than you might think. If students don’t understand what adults in their lives do all day, it’s hard for them to imagine their own futures. Career awareness starts close to home, it’s a key step in helping kids build social capital and begin exploring what might excite them down the road. When young people can connect the dots between school, work, and the world around them, they start to see possibility.

“You Just Go to Meetings, Right?”

My own son proved this point. Despite attending several Take Your Child to Work Days with me, he once believed my entire job was… attending meetings. (To be fair, there are a lot of meetings.)

It wasn’t until he grew older that he understood the heart of my work: helping people find meaningful careers.
That insight changed how he saw my job and opened his eyes to the broader world of work.

Kids don’t need to understand every technical detail of our jobs, they need to understand why we do them. When we share the people we help, the problems we solve, and the impact we make, we connect purpose to profession.

A Lesson From My Own Childhood

When I was young, I visited my dad at work. I knew he was a Supply Corps officer in the U.S. Navy, managing produce for commissaries across the West Coast, and later overseeing furniture warehouses for Kaiser. Only as an adult did I realize he was operating at the front end of what we now call the logistics industry—a field that’s become a massive, technology-driven powerhouse in California and beyond.

Those early experiences shaped how I understood leadership, responsibility, and problem-solving, even if I didn’t fully understand the job at the time.

The Big Takeaway for Families and Communities

If we want students across the Inland Empire, Los Angeles County, and all of California to dream big about their futures, we need to help them understand the work happening right in front of them.

Take Your Child to Work Day doesn’t have to be one square on the calendar.
It can be:

• a conversation at the dinner table

• a car ride chat

• a quick “Want to see what I’m working on?” moment

• or a small behind-the-scenes look at how adults solve problems every day

When kids see the connection between who they are, what they’re learning, and what adults do, they begin to understand their own possibilities.

Your Challenge

The next time your child asks, “What do you do all day?”—
don’t just tell them.
Show them.
Because everyday exposure builds the confidence and curiosity that fuel tomorrow’s talent.