I have company at work today. When she was smaller, my daughter loved to come to the office with me. It meant donuts for breakfast, riding in an elevator, eating in a real live cafeteria at lunch, and getting to play video games, read magazines, visit our onsite museum, and generally just hang out all day. These visits were usually necessitated by school closures or day care snags, and to be honest, they were a bit stressful for me. I always felt the need to prove I could be both a mom and a star employee. All the while attempting to keep someone with a short attention span engaged in something long enough for me to get a little work done.
Now seventeen, this morning she asked if she could come to the office with me and I thought, for a split second, that she just needed some Mom time. And I’m pretty sure she designed it to look that way. But as I called the school attendance office to spring her for the day, I realized that she’s just over the whole high school experience and wanted to play hooky with no consequences, as well as catch up in the classes she’s falling behind in. But you know, I’m totally OK with that. I realize, rather wistfully, that this may be the very last time she comes in to the office with me. I’m going to make it count.