I spent most of my professional career working for newspapers which, by definition, makes me a bit of cynic, a bit gruff and a bit of a hard ass. While I tone it down a bit for my current work in a major PR agency, a little bit of newsroom is a good thing and I take pride in it.

But I’m also smart enough to know a good thing when I see it and kid art on your walls is a good thing – especially for guys like us with a few rough edges.

As soon as my kids were able to throw something on paper with crayon, it went on my wall. So, what else is new, right? All Dads and Moms hang art on the walls at work.

But is there something more important, something deeper – and a bit devious – at play in the marker musings covering my walls?

You betcha.

Now, let me make it perfectly clear, I love my kids’ art. I think my oldest actually has a shot at being an artist with some work (which is amazing, since, me and my wife have minimal art skills. And I love to sit and look at it when I’m pondering life’s deeper questions – often during the post-lunch coma period.

I have the footprints on paper with the “walk a little slower” poem on it from both kids (still chokes me up sometimes). I have stick figures. I have the first attempts at superhero drawings. As they’ve grown older, the art sure has improved: I now have a three-panel Superman, a multi-colored Darth Vader and a nice drawing of me, Owen and Cinderella holding hands (sorry Heidi but it’s really not cheating if it’s a fairytale).

The question I struggled with was where to hang the artwork for best exposure.

When I worked in the State House, I had a cubicle and that decision was easy. It just went up on one of the walls. Now I’m in an office, it was a little harder. I went with a sliver of wall facing me that you can’t really see unless you come in the office. Some coworkers doubted my strategy but I said it’s about me seeing the artwork, not the masses. Turns out, I was right and that coworker, who shall remain nameless, put his kids’ art in the same spot in his office.

I wasn’t lying about why I chose the spot but I was also aware that enough co-workers come in and out of the office that they’d all see it – and they have. Most have commented.

That’s a good thing for me because, let’s face it, co-workers, particularly the youngish ones who tend to populate firms like mine, need to see the upside of your life with family. When you have kids, you tend to do a lot of running in or out of the office. Your workmates hear you on the phone during bath-time yelling, “Do not hit your brother with the dinosaur.” The artwork reminds them that there’s some pretty cool things that come out of parenting.

Is this image control on my part? Hell, yes. I know I can be an a-hole and if the young, mostly female people who populate my office think I’m a bit nicer guy because I put up that “bird” Jake pasted together that looks like roadkill, all the better for Dave.

But it’s also damn good art and I’m a damn proud Dad.

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