Taking Your Daughter To Work
Late yesterday evening – while sitting outside watching kindling burn in the old chiminea that sits on our patio, Miss 17 appeared in the doorway of the house, looking a bit lost. She finished college a week ago, and bouncing around the house on her own has started to get very old indeed.
I suggested that if she got herself up and out of bed in the morning, she could come with me to work. Better to be in the office bored, than knocking around the house at home bored. I didn’t think any more about it – fully expecting her to sleep straight through her alarm clock.
You can imagine my surprise at 7:30am this morning – in the middle of making packed lunches for everybody – when she emerged from her bedroom to have a wash. I almost fell over.
An hour later I had pulled her mountain bike from the shed, and re-inflated the tyres. After a few minutes of dithering over what to wear, what to put in her backpack, and how dangerous the morning traffic might be, we set off – very, very slowly. We continued towards the place I work – very, very slowly. And we arrived – very, very slowly. And you know the funny thing? She was knackered – almost unable to walk up the steps to the office.
It’s been fun though – having her around in the office. The building is almost deserted today – with most staff either working on-site at various customers, or working from home. We spent the better part of an hour at lunchtime sitting alongside the river, feeding the crusts of our sandwiches and cold pizza to the various swans and ducks that spotted us.
I wonder if she will come in again ? Perhaps more importantly, I wonder if she will survive the cycle home ?!