Bring Your Child to Work Day

In the sexist language of German, “Bring Your Child to Work Day” is called “Vater-Tochter-Tag” which translates into “Father and Daughter Day.” In Germany only men go to work. Surprised that this kind of sexist term still exists in the country where the first female chancellor was elected 3 years ago.

My fury aside, this “Vater-Tochter-Tag” also exists in Switzerland. Last week when peter came home, he excitedly reported about the Vater-Tochter-Tag in his office and how he showed his colleague’s daughters the application he uses to create his magazine. (I doubt if the girls really understood the principles behind the application, but who knows, the kids nowadays are much smarter than the kids we used to be.) As I mentioned earlier, Peter’s magazine “20 Minuten Friday” is supplemental to a free daily newspaper called “20 Minuten (20 Minutes).” The content of 20 Minuten is aimed for the commuters to be able to cover the daily news within 20 minutes.

When Peter saw the boss of this newspaper, he asked why his son did not come to the office to learn about his father’s job. His boss replied that his son used to come until he started typing text messages next to him at the meetings. He also told Peter about the story when his son was in kindergarten. His son and his classmates were talking about the parents’ professions. When he was asked what his father does, he replied “my dad works 20 minutes!” and everyone went “whoooo! He only works for 20 minutes a week?! That’s a great job!!” As Peter told me this story, I imagined the reaction of the innocent kids and the hard-working father sweating off at work in contrary and had to laugh so hard. I always see the lights in the office building of 20 Minuten until very late at night.

Almost at the same time, Peter and I imagined our future kids in kindergarten. “What does your dad do?” “He works 20 minutes on Friday!”