When your CEO tells you to go visit a museum during work hours, you go visit a museum. And that’s exactly what happened this week at Automattic.

Yesterday, I took my two kids (5yo and 2yo) to the National Gallery in Cape Town. While some of the art was a bit too mature for them — although they didn’t really notice — I used the same approach that Kim and I had started using over the years.

Kim and I have been to many museums together, and we both found it very overwhelming to consume so much art in such a short amount of time. So we started sharing with each other which artwork spoke to us the most in each of the halls and rooms at a gallery. We found that a much more accessible way to digest art.

Later, we added that we first tried to guess which artwork the other person connected to the most. Since art is such a personal and emotional experience, thinking about how someone you care about relates to the exhibitions adds another level of connection; you get to know each other better.

So, that’s exactly what I did with Mila (our 5yo): she tried to guess which artwork I’d like the most, and vice versa. She struggled with that — which is normal since she’s at the age where reciprocity is still developing — but I also wasn’t always right, and it was interesting listening to her reasoning for why she liked certain artworks more.

By the third hall, Luca also joined in and started pointing at certain pieces and indicating, “I like this.”

Mila did find it a bit boring at times — which doesn’t surprise me — but she was at the same time interested in looking through the photos again when we got back home.