National Night Out

Last night was National Night Out at my job and we hold a big celebration for the residents.  I work the event and my wife works at night elsewhere, so by default the kids come with me.  This is not a hardship. They love NNO and hanging out with the kids here.  Actually they are all ready friends with a few of the residents because they have played with them at a local city park.  I love bringing the kids because of more reasons than I should probably try to list.

I love letting my kids see and be part of where I work.  I am passionate about affordable housing--about good housing that is.  I want them to see that what I do matters.  It isn't really glamorous and it sure doesn't pay what other jobs might, but people have a safe clean homes here. Some lived in shelters for two years before they moved in here.  To me, that is huge.

I love my residents meeting my family.  Yes, I have to maintain professional distance. But there is a middle ground where I think it is not only okay, but really healthy to share a bit of oneself. To show a human side that may not be part of our routine communications.

I love that my kids get to mingle in the very diverse cultures of our resident population.  My kids are extremely sociable and always find a gaggle of kids to play a basketball game or something with.  We need to give our kids opportunities to work,play and interact with people from many walks of life.  NNO is a great venue for that to happen.

So, while I ran a raffle table, delivered water bottles and checked on vendors, they played, ran, ate and had a blast.  We were all tired when we got home, but can't wait until next year!