“What Your Kid Thinks About Your Job”

From a Wall Street Journal story by Anne Marie Chaker headlined “What Your Kid Thinks About Your Job”:

Kaili Milano
Age 8
Ashburn, Va.

The rising third-grader says she is still not quite sure what her father, 49-year-old Anthony Milano, does for a living. “It’s a lot of typing and listening. Sometimes he looks up stuff on his phone,” she says. Her dad’s home office is always a busy place of quiet activity. “There is a big monitor on his desk, a laptop and his phone. And lots of messy papers.”

Usually, she can hear a quiet hum behind closed glass doors—unless she and her younger sister start quarreling. “He’ll get mad and start waving,” she says.

Mr. Milano, an engineering manager for a content management services company, says the hand signals sometimes work and sometimes don’t. “It’s been challenging,” says Mr. Milano. This summer, he has gotten used to taking his work with him on the road to summer camp while Kaili plays hockey. “I’m able to get what I need done. I hide out in the corner and take my calls.”

Would Kaili like to have her dad’s job for a living? “No!’ she says. “Because it’s just calls and typing and typing and typing.” Her preferred career: veterinarian