Guest post: Ask the darkly spectacled Walter, episode one

Hi you guys. Kent here. Kirsten has been saying for a little while that if I want to, and I ask really nicely, and finish my chores and vegetables, I can do a guest post. (She gets to lay down the law, because it's her blog.) There has actually been discussion of a guest post series, and that doesn't sound half bad (to me). So this will be the first installment of my regular advice column. Today's question comes from a Sammamish dad with a four year old daughter and a little nine month old man-cub.

He writes:

I've got a pretty early schedule each morning, and I slip out of the house at least an hour or two before anyone's up. My kids are starting to wake up a little earlier some days, though. What do I do if they're up before I go to work and want to hang out?

Sleepy bus rider

Good question, Sleepy! I'm in the same situation. In fact, the other day, my daughter, who on most days is very strongly against getting up any earlier than 8:30, was crouching outside the bathroom door, staring deeply into me like a wise and indescribably startling old panther when I came out at 6:55 all dressed and ready to run and catch my bus.

Me: [jumping very nearly out of sync with my own soul] Well, good morning, G.G. Why are you up so early?
Greta Girl (G.G.): Well, I was all done sleeping. I knocked three times, but you didn't open the door.
M: I'm sorry, buddy. I had the shower on. Hey, um, maybe you could go hang out in your room until Mommy and Oliver get up?
G: Well, you just have to come with me and play with my toys with me.
M: You know, Thing, I actually really have to go to work.
[real, sincere, non-manipulative and genuinely heartbroken tears, and a valiant effort to still a shaking chin and be brave]
G: But Daddy, I was really, really hoping you could be with me.
[sympathy misting]
M: Oh, Greta, I want to so bad! I would much, much rather stay here with you. But I have to work so we have food and shoes and a house and sometimes even toys.
G: Maybe you could stay just a little? Just a short moment, perhaps?
(I promise these are the actual words this girl comes up with.)
M: Well, hold on a second, buddy.
[sneaking into my dark and quiet bedroom and whispering]
Hey Skirst, do you think you could pick Greta up from my office at 10?
Kirsten: Mmmffff-mmm... Mm-hmm.

And so it was that Greta and Daddy got all spiffed up for the office (Greta ever so much more so than her perennially casual dad), took the bus, got pancakes from the work cafeteria, and settled in under the fluorescent lights of corporate America to change the world together through the magic of software. It was the most fun I've had at work in ages, and way too short.

So my advice to you, Sleepy near Seattle, is to just take the hit on being a little later into the office, make arrangements, and turn it into an adventure. Unlike this column, hopefully it won't happen too regularly, or you might take a real productivity hit. But in reasonable doses, it's good to remember that "being productive" and producing something that will matter and last aren't always the same thing.