A couple of weeks ago, my son’s school had their annual “Take Your Child to Work” day.  On this day, children are encouraged to not attend a day of school, but rather go with a parent to the parent’s place of work.  I believe the idea is to get the school aged children to understand what a work day looks like and to understand a bit more about how different jobs function.  As we all know, jobs are different from being in school, so I applaud and appreciate this type of approach.  It certainly doesn’t hurt to have an extra day off from school for the kids, either!

I got an email from the school telling me about the day off of school a few weeks ago, and didn’t really think about it too much.  After all, my son is in 8th grade, and I didn’t think he would want to go to school with me.  I thought he would be better off in school, so he didn’t miss anything, and although my kids seemed to love coming to work with me when they were younger, I thought the 8th grader might be a little too cool to want to come to work with dad.  I was wrong.

The night before the appointed day, my son asked if he could come to work with me.  I was a bit surprised by the request, but told him that would be fine.  He searched out the form we were supposed to fill out, and discovered it was due by the end of school that day, so we were too late to fill in the form.  I volunteered that I could call him out of school on the attendance line the next day, and he thought that would be a good idea, so that’s what I did, and we were off to work that day.

Of course, my son didn’t want to sit in on all of the meetings I had with clients, as those can be quite boring and sometimes we discuss sensitive personal matters that are not really discussions an 8th grader would want to participate in, which I can understand.  I also don’t want to compromise the integrity of the estate planning process with my clients, so during those times, my son would sit in the lobby of the office, and either read his assigned book for his school class, or just play on his phone.  At the end of the work day, as we were driving home, I asked my son if he wanted to do what I do for a living.  Without hesitation, he said “No.”  We discussed why that was.  Apparently what I do is boring, and not at all exciting to an 8th grader.  I must say that I agree with him.  Estate planning is not really exciting and fun.  It is important and necessary, but exciting and fun are the wrong words.  I do try to make my meetings a bit light hearted, but I also understand that estate planning is about figuring out who gets assets after you die, so the subject matter itself isn’t always the most pleasant.

 

Having My Son With Me on Bring Your Child To Work Day Helped

Having my son with me on the day he came to work was nice.  As I met each client, I introduced them to my son and they were happy to meet him.  It gave me a chance to talk a little bit about my own family and how my own estate plan was set up to take care of the family that I have.  That led perfectly into a discussion of the potential client’s family and how we could take care of their family in their own estate plan.  Having my son right there kind of set everyone at ease, and helped those particular clients open up about their desires to care for their family.  Since estate planning is all about caring for your family, even after you are gone, my son’s presence helped the estate planning process for those I met with that day.  When my son is not with me, I still show pictures of my family and discuss the importance of estate planning for a client’s family, as that is what drives what I do and the reason behind most people wanting to set up their estate plan – to take care of their family, even in their absence.

My son also got to meet a new furry friend during his time at work with me.  The person who manages the shared office space where I have my main office brings his 14 year old golden retriever, Willow, with him to work.  Willow is a very gentle dog, and is well trained to behave.  But, Willow is not against being friends with those who are willing to pet and interact with the dog.  I have befriended Willow, and sometimes Willow follows me back to my office space, and I need to remind Willow to stay up front with the business center manager.  My wife tells me I am a dog whisperer, but I just think I like dogs and the dogs can sense I like them, so dogs tend to think I am a safe person to be around.  I agree with the dogs.

My dogs are my furry canine children, and I treat them as such…not to the detriment of my human children, but I do consider my dogs family.  I even have planned for my dogs in my own estate plan and you can too.  You don’t need to plan for your pets the same way as you do your human children, but you do at least want to consider how to plan for your pets in your estate plan.

 

My Son Coming to Work With My Wasn’t All About Him Learning About Work

As we went home, I asked my son why he wanted to come to work with me.  He said he wanted to have a day off school.  I think that was probably a very candid answer!  I do think he realized what my daughter said when she went to work with me a decade ago.  My wife asked her how the day went and she said it was awesome.  My wife asked what her favorite part was, and she responded that she loved everything.  And then my daughter added, “I think I know why dad is tired when he gets home.  We were gone all day and he was always doing something.  His phone rang all the time.  He talked to people, or we were driving somewhere to meet with someone all day.  I think he might get tired.”  An astute observation from a 10 year old daughter, but my oldest has always been like that, so I wouldn’t expect any less!

I do work hard to take care of my clients.  I want to make sure that the estate plans I set up are correct and that they reflect what you want to have happen with your assets after you are gone.  I have a lot of people that I have been able to help, and there are a lot of people I will help in the future, including you if you want my help.  To make an appointment to talk about your family and how to help them in your estate plan, click the button below.