I loved going with my father to the legislature. I would sit in the galley for hours watching all the activity on the floor and then would wander around the halls trying to figure out what was going on.
—Lyndon Johnson
What do you think drew Steph Curry to basketball? It was the time he spent in arenas watching his dad play. The lights before the team ran through the tunnel. The cheers of the crowd. The pounding of the music. The sound of the buzzer. Seeing Dad do his thing. Even Curry’s obsession with popcorn hints at a kid who spent countless afternoons and evenings in NBA arenas, soaking in not just the sights and sounds but even the smells and the tastes.
This is an old story, one as old as parenthood itself. It’s why blacksmiths had sons who became blacksmiths, why as soon as women were allowed to have careers, the daughters of teachers followed their mothers into the classroom and soon enough into more and more elite professions.
So let your kids see you work. Expose them to the good and the bad of it, even the boring parts of it. You have no idea what parts they’ll find exciting. You never know what you might be opening their eyes to. Don’t pressure them to go into the “family business,” of course, but give them a chance to see how that business runs. Let them see you in your element.