I brought my 3-year-old and 6-year-old sons to work with me. Here's what I learned.

· Business Insider

Joi-Marie McKenzie

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What I learned from Take Your Kids to Work Day

The fourth Thursday of April means two things: You'll see a lot more kids during your work commute, and the office may be a bit more chaotic with the sound of young laughter, and yes, even some cries.

Take Your Kid to Work Day was an eventful one at Business Insider. Dozens of our colleagues' children descended into our newsroom's auditorium for bingo, a scavenger hunt, an animation demonstration to see how cartoons are made — courtesy of our amazing video team — and of course, pizza.

As a first-time mom of two boys (smile), it also taught me three lessons:

  1. My workday is optimized for efficiency, but on TYKTWD, it was replaced with a slower pace that children naturally bring. It allowed me to be more present and engaged with my coworkers.
  2. It also reminded me of the value of flexibility. My daily caramel macchiato run turned into grabbing hot chocolate for my boys. After one promptly spilled (a small tragedy indeed), the day was still amazing. It's proof that drinks can spill, meetings can get canceled, but nothing broke.
  3. The day also made me grateful, again, for the work I get to do — telling meaningful stories for our readers. My boys marveled at FiDi's skyscrapers, a dinosaur-shaped building, and even my office's elevators that I typically ignore.

In the end, presence did what productivity couldn't.

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