Take Your Child to Work – A New Spin

Typically at MSU we welcome children to campus to experience the many different career options available either within the campus community or through the education achieved here. Over the past year kids have gotten a unique experience with watching the adults in their lives handling work – some at home and some still traveling to locations. In lieu of Take Your Child to Work Day, we asked the kids what they think about their parent’s job. Hear from our young Spartans below.

Elliott Dial, almost 7 years old

Parent’s name: Caitlyn Perry Dial
Assistant Director of Development and Alumni Relations, College of Veterinary Medicine

• Describe your parent’s job in a few sentences: My mom helps animals and future veterinarians however she can.
• What have you learned about what your parent does at work?
  I learned that my mom talks to a lot of people all day.
• What do you like about what they do? I like that she helps people and animals.
• What don’t you like about what they do? I don’t like that she works all day.
• What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a chemical engineer.

For parents:

• What do you envision your child/teen doing when they grow up? I see Elliott as a teacher or some kind of career where he can be his expressive and joyful self. He enjoys being around other people and lights up a room, but a chemical engineer is a great career too!
• What was the best part about working from home? In the beforetimes, I never knew what Elliott did at school and he never knew what I did at work. I have really loved this glimpse into each other’s worlds. 
• What was your lesson learned about work and home this year? Sometimes work can wait. I won’t have this opportunity to have this special time together again.  

Photo is from a midday ice cream break this month. 

Caleb, age 9

Parent’s name:  Katie Conley
Executive Assistant to Chair, Microbiology & Molecular Genetics

• Describe your parent’s job: My mom helps her boss with his day to day schedule and duties. She writes emails, schedules meetings, helps the faculty in her department and she does a lot of reports for the University. She even gets to meet Sparty on occasion! 
• What have you learned about what your parent does at work?
  My mom writes A LOT of emails and looks at calendars all day. 
• What do you like about what they do? I like that my mom makes money to buy us food, give us a home, and nice things every once in a while. She also types REALLY fast!
• What don’t you like about what they do? I don’t like when my mom gets on meetings at all. 
• What do you want to be when you grow up? Professional Soccer or Baseball Player 

For parents:

• What do you envision your child/teen doing when they grow up?  I could see Caleb being a sports announcer.  He is extremely passionate about all sports.  I suspect no matter what he does he will coach a sport of some sort in his lifetime.  I could also see him becoming an architect or engineer.  
• What was the best part about working from home?  Working from home the past year has given me the opportunity to have this time with my son that I never would have had otherwise.  We’ve both grown and learned so much from each other.
• What was your lesson learned about work and home this year?  Life is fast enough as it is.  Slow down and take time to create moments as a family so that our kids have those memories and traditions to carry on. 

Tommy, age 4

Parent’s name: Stephanie Hoenig
Associate Director of Development, MSU College of Nursing

• Describe your parent’s job: call and talk to people
• What have you learned about what your parent does at work? Type and call people on the computer
• What do you like about what they do? You play with me on breaks
• What don’t you like about what they do? Don’t like it when you call people on the computer
• What do you want to be when you grow up? I never want to grow up

For parents:

• What do you envision your child/teen doing when they grow up? Being a nurse or doctor
• What was the best part about working from home? More time to play outside
• What was your lesson learned about work and home this year? Give yourself grace 

Jordyn, age 17
Gabe, age 16
Tommy, age 12
Eli, age 8

Parent’s name: Geri Alumit Zeldes
Professor in the School of Journalism and Faculty Excellence Advocate for ComArtSci

• Describe your parent’s job in a few sentences:
  • Eli: “She does a lot of Zooms, and she has to do those Zooms because she has to teach her students.” 
  • Tommy: “It seems very hard with lots of writing.”
  • Gabe: “She’s in the category of ComArts. She teaches other students how to produce and direct and she is part of a big building and makes movies and directs movies.
• What have you learned about what your parent does at work?
  • Eli: “She teaches that thingy … journalism.”
  • Tommy: “I’ve learned that she teaches students how to read and write and talk in front of people.
  • Gabe: “She does lot of Zooms and a lot of meetings. She talks to a lot of students about mental health. She’s a second mother to other students.”
• What do you like about what they do?
  • Eli: “She one of the hardest workers at Michigan State.”
  • Tommy: “You’re like the head of people, and you do programs that you own.”
  • Gabe: “I like that how she builds relationships w/ her students, and she gets to meet a lot of people, and sometimes people who are famous.”
• What don’t you like about what they do?
  • Eli: “She always tells us to go into our rooms.”
  • Tommy: “You’re always busy, and you’re always going places.”
  • Gabe: “She spends a lot of time on her work.”
• What do you want to be when you grow up?
  • Eli: engineer
  • Tommy: doctor – an ophthalmologist
  • Gabe: orthopedic surgeon

For parents:

• What do you envision your child/teen doing when they grow up?
  • Eli: pilot
  • Tommy: pilot
  • Gabe: orthopedic surgeon
• What was the best part about working from home?
• “At the beginning of the pandemic, I went on long walks with my daughter and just talked. I got to see my neighborhood and see her.”
• What was your lesson learned about work and home this year?
• “Time on Zoom is precious. It’s important to maximize that time by beginning Zoom School with a prompt, a question that engages the lesson of the day and gives them an opportunity to talk and engage with each other. In a related way, it’s also important to provide a pause after an hour or so, so we can all have a bio break and breathe so we can hit the second hour of class with a refreshed battery.” 

Ella, age 7

Parent’s name: Sarah Douglas
Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Studies

• Parent’s job at MSU: Teacher? (I am an associate professor)
• Describe your parent’s job: I can’t remember
• What have you learned about what your parent does at work? Help kids. (I conduct research to support children with disabilities, their families, and their educational teams – check out the MSU RADD lab)
• What do you like about what they do? I don’t know. (haha)
• What don’t you like about what they do? I don’t know. (haha)
• What do you want to be when you grow up? A vet

For parents:

• What do you envision your child/teen doing when they grow up? I could definitely see Ella as a vet. She’s already gone through about 4 vet shows on Disney+ during the past year, and she is not grossed out at all by calving, abscess draining, or fecal transplants.
• What was the best part about working from home? Seeing my kids more often.
• What was your lesson learned about work and home this year? Lock your door if you don’t want to be interrupted – the kids like to join every zoom meeting! And have work tasks you can do offline in case the internet stops working – with 4 of us online at once that happened more than I can count.

Story, age 11

Parent’s name: Heidi Purdy
Assistant Dean

• Describe your parent’s job: She assists people to get through college and help other people to help students get through college with good grades. She keeps people on task and works with a lot of data. She attends a lot of meetings.
• What have you learned about what your parent does at work? Work can be frustrating. I have over all learned more about colleges and more about how students act at that stage in there life. Also, getting emails is unavoidable.
• What do you like about what they do? It gives her money to help support our family. She has work friends that are able to meet and laugh together. I really like that she is at home working now. 
• What don’t you like about what they do? I don’t like that she has a lot of meetings, especially nighttime meetings.
• What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a writer or an animator, specifically an author of fantasy books or an animator at Walt Disney Studios.

For parents:

• What do you envision your child/teen doing when they grow up? I think she will be an author. She is always writing and is filled with stories.
• What was the best part about working from home? Being together as a family. I love the opportunity to have lunch everyday with my husband and kids. We have become even closer as a family than we were before the pandemic.
• What was your lesson learned about work and home this year? I have learned the importance of balance in my work days. There is give and take throughout my days between work and home demands. Flexibility is essential and has been incredibly beneficial to me personally and in my job. 

Collins, age 10

Parent’s name: Heidi Purdy
Advisor

• Describe your parent’s job: Her job is to advise people, work on emails, and go to meetings.
• What have you learned about what your parent does at work? I didn’t know how important she is to the college. 
• What do you like about what they do? I like being able to spend time with her working from home.
• What don’t you like about what they do? I don’t like how they are making her go to commencement. 
• What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a baker, a writer, or an artist.

For parents:

• What do you envision your child/teen doing when they grow up? I think she will be a boss someday. She is incredibly organized and full of great ideas. 
• What was the best part about working from home? Being together as a family. I love the opportunity to have lunch everyday with my husband and kids. We have become even closer as a family than we were before the pandemic.
• What was your lesson learned about work and home this year? I have learned the importance of balance in my work days. There is give and take throughout my days between work and home demands. Flexibility is essential and has been incredibly beneficial to me personally and in my job. 

Cecelia Jones, age 5

Parent’s name: Pamela Jones 
Director, Alumni Engagement for Michigan – MSU Alumni Office 

• Describe your parent’s job: My mama works for MSU. She sometimes works in the football stadium and knows Sparty. 
• What have you learned about what your parent does at work? I learned that my mama helps people. She types a lot and does lots of zoom meetings. 
• What do you like about what they do? I like that I get to say hi to everyone when mama is having meetings. 
• What don’t you like about what they do? I don’t like that you work all day. I don’t like when you have late meetings and can’t read me a bedtime story. 
• What do you want to be when you grow up? An astronaut and a scientist. 

For parents:

• What do you envision your child/teen doing when they grow up? She has so many interests, such a big imagination and a VERY strong personality. She will absolutely be a leader and I see her doing something in the sciences. No matter what she does, I hope she maintains her love of nature and exploration. She is also a very skilled debater (she doesn’t like to be told no)! 
• What was the best part about working from home? Working from home has allowed me to prioritize my own health a bit more. It has allowed me the time to start running regularly. Not traveling/driving for meetings (many of which are in the evening) has been really nice. My kids are young and being home to put them to bed, having lunch with them, and just generally having a less chaotic schedule have all been positives. 
• What was your lesson learned about work and home this year? Working from home and working from home during a pandemic are not the same. Having the opportunity to work from home can be really wonderful and allows me to be more productive much of time. However, what we have all been doing is working through a pandemic, many of us with limited childcare. Serving as parent, teacher and employee is incredibly challenging. Additionally, the mental and emotional toll the past year+ has at times, been overwhelming. 
• My lessons learned are that I’m privileged to: 
  • have the ability to work home
  • have a home office
  • have a supportive team at work and spouse at home
  • have the ability to keep my family safe and healthy
  • have the ability to be creative in my work to adapt to current circumstances 
  • be contributing in ways that are meaningful and valuable to MSU learn and grow both professionally and personally 

The attached photo is our family at our “Valentine’s Day Dance”. Cece was really disappointed not to have her annual daddy/daughter dance so we created our own version at home. One of the many adaptations this year….  

Claire, age 3

Parent’s name: Julia Janssen
Director of Marketing and Communications

• Parent’s job at MSU: Meetings (real job is Director of Marketing and Communications for Admissions)
• Describe your parent’s job: Type and do meetings
• What have you learned about what your parent does at work? Talks to lots of people on the computer
• What do you like about what they do? I would like to type on the computer
• What don’t you like about what they do? I don’t like so many meetings
• What do you want to be when you grow up? I just want to help my little brother

For parents:

• What do you envision your child/teen doing when they grow up? It’s hard to guess this early, but she’s very verbal and loves performing and doing art projects so I’d imagine anything in communications or the arts might be a good fit.  
• What was the best part about working from home? Getting small things accomplished  around the house between meetings 
• What was your lesson learned about work and home this year? I underestimated how resilient and capable we all are

Jack Record, age 3

Parent’s name: Ellie Louson
Academic Specialist, Learning Designer at the Hub for Innovation in Learning & Technology and teaching in Lyman Briggs College

• Describe your parent’s job: “Work. What? Working on your computer.”
• What have you learned about what your parent does at work? “I don’t know” 
• What do you like about what they do? “I like that sometimes she gets to play with me at the end of the day.”
• What don’t you like about what they do? “When she’s at work she doesn’t play with me at all.”
• What do you want to be when you grow up? “I wanna be a firefighter!”

For parents:

• What do you envision your child/teen doing when they grow up? Something with people; he’s so friendly. And maybe something outdoors or building things.
• What was the best part about working from home? No commute means a bit longer to sleep in. Also getting to spend more time with the kids during the day; they’re such cool little people!
• What was your lesson learned about work and home this year? I need to be careful about putting boundaries around my time and availability or else I take on too much.

Maddy Record, age 7

Parent’s name: Isaac Record
Academic Specialist, teaching and director of Experiential Learning in Lyman Briggs College

• Describe your parent’s job: “Daddy mows the lawn and does something and teaches. He teaches college. I think he teaches people who are in college.”
• What have you learned about what your parent does at work? “He has a lot of meetings and sometimes he gets to play with me.”
• What do you like about what they do? “I like that Daddy’s work gives Daddy enough money to buy what we need and want.”
• What don’t you like about what they do? “Because I think Daddy gets too many emails and too many work stuff because then I only get a little bit of time to play with Daddy.”
• What do you want to be when you grow up? “I wanna be a babysitter!”

For parents:

• What do you envision your child/teen doing when they grow up?  Happy, I hope! Maybe a video game designer.
• What was the best part about working from home? Being present for so many triumphs (and troubles) in my kids’ lives.
• What was your lesson learned about work and home this year?  I have learned that, while I like to do focused work alone, I really need a group of people to bounce ideas off in order to stay on track.

Rio Holtsclaw, age 6

Parent’s name: Maranda Holtsclaw
Director, Michigan Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC), WorkLife Office

• Describe your parent’s job: My mom works at Michigan State.  She looks at a calculator to see how much money she is going to spend. She uses Zoom and the phone to meet with people. She types a lot of messages to her coworkers.
• What have you learned about what your parent does at work?  Sometimes she messes up and has to start over.  When she meets with people they don’t always talk about work; my mom talks about me to the people she meets with sometimes and they say hi to me sometimes too. 
• What do you like about what they do? I like that she learns stuff when she does her work. 
• What don’t you like about what they do?  I don’t like that that my mom doesn’t get to spend as much time with me as she usually does on the days when she doesn’t have to work. 
• What do you want to be when you grow up? A video game maker and an author

For parents:

• What do you envision your child/teen doing when they grow up? I just want Rio to do something that brings him joy and passion.  When you enjoy your work, it feels less like a “job” and adds so much more enjoyment to your life. 
• What was the best part about working from home?  Spending extra time with my family and seeing my 1 year old hit major milestones along the way.  As much as they drive me crazy somedays, I love being home with my husband and kids.  I also love saving time by not commuting, packing lunches, loading children in carseats and even staying in my PJs on days that I don’t have meetings.  Family walks at lunchtime are also a favorite of ours. 
• What was your lesson learned about work and home this year? I learned/morphed so much! My family was used to being out and about on the evenings and weekends and we had to get used to slowing down, getting more comfortable just being at home and finding little things to celebrate and enjoy.  We all learned the power of apologizing; I apologized to my kids for snapping at them when they interrupted me while I’m working, my son apologized for his meltdowns while he was doing online school and missing his friends, etc.  We all recognized that this was new for us, we were still learning how to navigate all of the changes, and we had to grant each other some grace. My family has grown and stretched in wonderful ways and we’ve really been able to see at a basic level, what is most important to us. 

Will, age 13 & Darrell, age 11

Parent’s name: Careen Loos
Graphic Artist

• Describe your parent’s job: My mom helps design things for other people in her clinic or anyone at MSU or whoever wants it. Designing graphics for businesses and doing it very well and getting over 100 emails in the span of a week when we were on vacation. 
• What have you learned about what your parent does at work? Meeting half way with others and not sticking too much to your ideas is a good idea for getting things done efficiently. She is really good at doing things where you can create designs of things over actual pictures, adding stuff on. 
• What do you like about what they do? She seems like she likes it and it’s an interesting job and fun to help with. That it’s a fun thing that I can have an input on some of the time, she asks my opinion like “What color looks better?” 
• What don’t you like about what they do? That it always makes her stressed. That she has to be in so many meetings or that her meetings last so long.
• What do you want to be when you grow up? I don’t know yet but maybe a band director. Ooo that’s a hard one, I really don’t know. Maybe a chef for a small diner or a Nintendo developer.

For parents:

• What do you envision your child/teen doing when they grow up? Musical Composer. Illustrator.
• What was the best part about working from home? MORE TIME WITH MY BOYS! 😍
• What was your lesson learned about work and home this year? I do love working from home, but it surprisingly comes with some unexpected stresses. I definitely had to dust off some healthy coping skills, especially in the beginning of the pandemic. While I am much more productive at home, I do miss my work family. 

Haiden, age 14

Parents’ names: Jaimie and Wayne Hutchison
Deputy Director, Worklife | Managing Director of MBA, Broad College of Business

• Describe your parents’ jobs:
  • Mom: You help people and refer them to others if you can’t. You deal with work issues and home issues.
  • Dad: I don’t even know what dad does. It is something with students in business He is like a principal of sorts for college.
• What have you learned about what your parent does at work?
  • Mom: I learned a lot of people are grateful for your work and that your job is really hard. There are a lot of housekeeping issues you have to do with FaceBook, emails, and zoom.
  • Dad: he helps students and faculty with issues of cheating and scandals. Tries to be a neutral third party and give everyone the information they need.
• What do you like about what they do?
  • Mom: you get to help people.
  • Dad: He also helps people and is a great leader and mediator.
• What don’t you like about what they do?
  • Mom: You have to deal with a lot of second hand stress with others coming to you.
  • Dad: He has to leave a lot to study abroad and things.
• What do you want to be when you grow up? Something in the business or law and helping people. I like research, but I don’t have a specific career path yet.

For parents:

• What do you envision your child/teen doing when they grow up? Haiden has a lot of skills. She gravitates toward her logical side, I can totally see business and research, but she also has a huge heart and is passionate. I can see her helping people no matter what she chooses.
• What was the best part about working from home? Being able to spend quality time together as a family, including our yellow lab. Being present and having less running around to do. Being able to have meals together and take walks as a family more. Getting to see Haiden navigate all the things and being able to be here and together for each other.
• What was your lesson learned about work and home this year? Give grace, everyone is navigating so much. Give yourself grace, you are doing your best. Holding strong boundaries can be hard, but they are so very important. I learned that I can live without most everything, except I really miss celebrating and spending time with family and friends in person.

Thank you to all the kids, parents and caregivers for sharing your stories. We hope you enjoyed hearing from other members of our Spartan community. Share your story with us at WorkLife@msu.edu.