When you’re working remotely, it can feel like every day is “Take Your Child to Work” day. But the official holiday, “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day,” happens on the fourth Thursday of April every year in the United States.

Started in 1993 by the Ms.Foundation, this day was originally called “Take Our Daughters to Work Day.” It was intended to give girls the opportunity to learn about career options when they had not yet been overly influenced by traditional gender roles. It has since been expanded and renamed to “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work,” though it maintains the core tenet of helping young people explore different career paths and learn about the professional world.

(In the spirit of being more inclusive to all gender expressions, we’ll refer to it as “Take Your Child to Work” throughout this article.)

In 2022, the holiday will take place on April 28 and the official theme for this year is “New possibilities create new horizons.” While it’s not observed as a national holiday, children ages 8–18 are encouraged to take the day (or at least part of the day) off from school to attend. In the past, children would accompany their parents to the company office, though these days it’s more likely to involve participating virtually by joining them at their home office.

Considerations for Take Your Child to Work Day in a virtual world

The majority of workers who don’t have to go to the office are choosing to continue working remotely, according to Pew Research. If you’re one of the 59% who are working from home all or most of the time, you might be wondering how your company can celebrate Take Your Child to Work Day in these circumstances. While it’s true you won’t be able to take them on a tour or swing by the cafeteria for lunch like you might in person, you can still put together an event that feels meaningful and special.

Why participate, even in a virtual setting? Here are a few reasons to consider:

• You can cultivate feelings of goodwill among your employees and their families
• You’re providing an opportunity to create a sense of belonging where employees share more of their lives outside of work
• It can be a much-needed break from the monotony of working from home
• For older children, you can promote your internships, training programs, or other opportunities for recent graduates to potentially grow your talent pipeline

Remember: It doesn’t have to be a full day. You could put together an agenda of events until lunchtime and leave the afternoon free. This would allow your employees and their children to enjoy the benefits without feeling like they’ve lost an entire day and now need to scramble to catch up.

7 ideas for your Take Your Child to Work Day for remote companies

1. Send welcome packages to kids/families

Who doesn’t love a present? Put together a welcome package for everyone who’s participating. This might include things like T-shirts, water bottles, stickers, and notebooks, a special snack, or items that tie into the specific activities of your day. For example, if participants will be working on a volunteer or craft project, make sure to send them all the supplies they’ll need to participate.

2. Set up new hire onboarding for kids

If you’ve already spent time creating an engaging onboarding experience for your adult new hires, perhaps you can adapt some of that content to welcome kids into the fold for the day. You’ll want to keep sessions short and sweet, but you might take participants on a virtual tour of your office, do a quick lesson or quiz on your company history, introduce a few people from different departments, or create a scavenger hunt on your company website with prizes for the winners.

3. Encourage career exploration

There are several ways you can help kids explore different career options. You might offer quizzes or assessments like CliftonStrengths to help them learn more about themselves and discover what types of jobs could be a good fit. Another approach is to have children interview someone (not necessarily their parent) to learn more about their education and background, their career path, and their current job. In a virtual setting, you might need to do some advance preparation to make sure anyone who wants to participate gets someone to interview and they schedule time for a call. You might even encourage participants to create a short blog post or social media update to share what they’ve learned and whether it’s changed their mind about working in a specific role or department.

4. Organize Airbnb experiences (or something similar) that are a fit for kids

Take Your Child to Work Day is all about sparking curiosity. If you make that the priority, you open up the possibilities to all kinds of activities, like cooking, learning a specific craft, or exploring a city or geographical area (these could be based on where your company has offices or where your customers live). Airbnb has countless virtual experiences that you could book for your employees and their kids or you may have employees who would be excited about organizing something similar.

5. Do a kid-friendly ask-me-anything (AMA)

Depending on your company size and makeup, you could set up an AMA with your CEO, heads of different departments, or anyone whose job would be particularly interesting for the younger set. You could encourage kids to submit their questions ahead of time and have the participants prepare a show and tell or other activity to keep the conversation engaging. At the end of the session, you might also ask participants to share the most interesting thing they learned or take turns answering questions themselves.

6. Find a volunteer project to collaborate on

If your company already has corporate social responsibility projects, can parents and their kids contribute in some way during Take Your Child to Work Day? They could spend time learning about your different initiatives and brainstorming ways to get involved such as planting a tree or donating supplies to a non-profit. If this isn’t feasible, there are still plenty of volunteer projects that can be done from home such as making cards for hospitalized kids, or writing letters to elders.

7. Take time away from your desk

This one is super important! Don’t forget to schedule time away from the desk and computer, whether that means doing some stretches, going for a walk around the neighborhood, or learning a TikTok dance together. This is a good reminder for both kids and their parents that staying active is key to staying alert and doing our best work!

How can you make Take Your Child to Work day inclusive?

Beyond designing the day to work in a virtual setting, there are a few other ways you can make sure your Take Your Child to Work day is inclusive.

As we noted earlier, one of the simple things you can do is use language like “child” rather than “daughters and sons” to be more open and inclusive to all genders.

Employees who don’t have children can still participate by organizing or leading specific sessions—make sure everyone knows they’re welcome to join in.

For employees who have lost children or are experiencing strained relationships with their children, this event could bring up some difficult emotions. You might consider providing optional support in the form of a Slack group or a guided session with a counselor.

While the holiday is celebrated in several countries, it’s most commonly known in the US and Canada. If you have offices in countries where Take Your Child to Work Day is not very well known, you may also want to spend some time providing additional background and explaining the purpose of the day to your international employees.