Junior

As I made my coffee this morning, I looked over at the counter and found this seemingly important document sitting there, waiting to be seen.

Immediately, I thought, “Ugh, I’m going to have to drive this to school.” Then I took a deeper look.

It’s a PROJECT PLAN.

Folks, I do not teach project management at home. I do not even talk about project management at home. In fact, it sometimes feels like my kids troll me about the title of project manager, Project Management for Humans, my YouTube videos (which their friends have discovered. Ugh.), and anything else related to my work.

And I love it.

They can troll me all they want. After all, I am likely one of the biggest trolls you know. I'm certainly the biggest troll they know. But here's the personally gratifying part of this: my work is just a part of their world. They know what it's all about, and they get it.

Plus, they see how I apply my work in real life, at home. They see me overthinking everything, planning things to their fullest, cursing the heavens when things don’t go my way, then eventually calming down when I’ve fixed said thing. Not all proud moments, my friends. Our kids see the best and the worst of us. We always hope they take the best parts with them.

And while I’m not teaching them PM, they know I’m out there. They know about the book. They see what it means. And that’s cool for me, isn’t it?

It really is, because I'll get to see two intelligent women grow up to become the brilliant people they are, with me in their corner, rooting them on and reminding them to think things through, plan ahead, learn from their mistakes, and adapt. All stuff they can learn from me online, by the way, so it's not that cool for them.

The troll back

I can’t take the jokes about my work without taking this opportunity to give it back publicly. So, here’s my critique of her plan:

• Loving the to-do list/timeline vibe and the mixed media (we all know I have an affinity for sticky notes)
• The timeline is…confusing me. But I like it, you’re flexible. Good start.
• This plan is missing FaceTime calls with friends, fighting with your sister, singing Taylor Swift way too loudly, and cuddling Bert
• This plan assumes that Mommy has the time to study with you (she always does, but what’s your Plan B? We all know it’s not me. Not smart enough to study Math with you. We all know that’s what you’re thinking, and you’re not wrong.)
• We all know you never go to bed by 9:00. You fall asleep on the couch and I have to beg you to sleepwalk to your bed.

The best part? My sister stopped by at around 5:30 and threw the whole plan off. That’s what made this all so real.

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Have a great Tuesday. Hope you had fun reading this.