Parents are working harder than ever

Quarantine means kids might actually see it.

Jewelry designer Lisa Zampolin was beading charm jewelry during quarantine when her 13-year-old son had an idea. “Mom, we should give your angel bracelets to all the nurses and doctors who follow you on Instagram!” Next thing she knew, Zampolin’s followers were messaging names and addresses of health-care workers from across the country, and her sons packaged and mailed 200 guardian angel bracelets from her business, Love, Lisa. “I have teenage boys. They never paid attention to my jewelry,” Zampolin said, laughing. “But now that I’m working from home instead of at the showroom, they’re seeing me in a whole new light: as a businesswoman.”

It’s 9 a.m. Do you know where your parents work?

Under various shelter-athome orders, every day is now Take Your Child to Work Day as millions of parents are working alongside remote-schooling children. Challenges are considerable, as the many work-fromhome memes will attest, but experts see a silver lining. Now kids can learn what their parents actually do for a living, see how hard they work at doing it and possibly gain a whole new appreciation for them.

“In my work as a family and child therapist, I ask a lot of questions, but the one that stumps almost all kids is, ‘What do your parents do for a living?’” said San Diego psychologist Ron Stolberg, professor at Alliant International University and co-author of “Teaching Kids to Think.” “I get blank stares, overly broad answers like ‘business’ and a look of amazement when they realize they have no idea.”

Seeing a parent’s professional identity — skillfully leading a Zoom meeting, getting treated respectfully by co-workers and being important in the corporate context — can have a profound impact. “Children are getting glimpses into [their parents’] professional lives right now in a way that we’ve never seen before, and there’s a huge opportunity here for learning, sharing, growth and connectedness — both for kids and for parents,” said Neha Chaudhary, psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, and co-founder of Brainstorm, the Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation.

Fred and Maureen Schmidt, owners of Florida swimsuit company Shade Critters, have long involved their kids, 12 and 14, in their business, but in “fun ways,” such as putting them in a photo shoot. “Now that we’ve got swimsuits laid out all over our home, our daughter tries on fit samples between pre-algebra classes, and our son helps design textile prints,” Maureen Schmidt said. “Plus, they over