Working hard for the money

My son was in the loft playing office.

Even if he hadn't told me this several times, I would have been able to figure it out based on the number of "important meetings" and "back-to-back" phone calls he said he had. At some point he told me his calendar is booked but he scheduled himself a break so he could eat breakfast with me.

And since this all sounds awfully familiar, I started to feel bad. But, because I emphatically wanted to know this was all my doing, I asked him, "Who's office are you working at?"

"Your office, Mommy," he said. "We have a lot of meetings today, don't we?"

I love my job, but I never really thought about the effect my working would have on my son at this age. But, I guess it makes sense: We absorb our parents' work ethic, even if we want to rebel against it. Although the study on that link may be small, the idea behind it is big: Our children will figure out how hard they want to work in life based on watching us.

My Dad's job when I was little was always a bit of a mystery to me. I knew where he worked, but didn't really understand his job until I was much older. When my Mom went back to work, I had a clearer understanding of her job, and how hard she worked, and how much she cared about her team. It's clear that some of that has made its way into how I view my job today.

And even clearer to me is how much my Mom must have struggled with her own work/life balance issues when she was raising me. I guess she is the one I should go to when I need a few tips on how to keep the scales of work and play evenly distributed.

Who's work ethic has your child inherited? Tell me what you think in the comments.