What do you think drew Steph Curry to basketball? It must have been many things, but chief among them has to have been 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 tastes. 

This is an old story, one as old as fatherhood 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. 

Lyndon Johnson fell in love with politics because his father had been a state legislator in Texas. “I loved going with my father to the legislature,” he wrote. “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.”

This is why you have to let your kids see you work. It’s why you have to expose them to the good and the bad of it, even the boring parts of it. Because 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. 

Let them see you in your element. Let them see what a person who loves their work looks like.