The New York Times sings the praises of parents as employees.
Lisa Belkin writes (excerpt):
The practical result of increased patience, efficiency and empathy, Ms. Crittenden writes (tongue only partly in cheek) is the ability to manage staff, clients and co-workers as you would manage children. Or, as one female executive at America Online tells her: “Dealing with 3-year-olds is great training for dealing with executives. They all have short attention spans, short fuses and are prone to pout.” Parents quickly learn that to get a child to eat a vegetable, it’s helpful to offer a choice of vegetables, so that the worker, umm, child, “thinks it’s his idea.” Giving out “gold stars” also works at the office as well as at home.