BLOG: The adorable things kids want to be when they 'grow up'.

by BERN MORLEY

When I was little, I had a fairly strong idea of what I wanted to be “when I grew up”. Funnily enough never once did I see myself explaining Capital Gains implications to unhappy taxpayers – yet here I am.

No, when I was young I wanted to be either a detective or a journalist. Or Kevin Bacon’s wife. I can thank my adopted dad for the first two career aspirations. I can blame Footloose for the last one.

See, Dad had told me that my maternal and paternal grandfathers were both in these particular fields of work and then (drunkenly) proceed to tell me wild stories about their supposed adventures.

I was hooked and was adamant that my ultimate path would be some ground breaking lady journalist that did her own detective work and caught all the bad guys. And then of course, married Kevin Bacon.

It wasn’t long however, until my innocence was shattered. See, even though my Dad had a Masters Degree, it was in Bullshittery and at around the age 11, he confessed that he didn’t actually know what my grandfathers had done, that in fact, he didn’t even know them all.

This didn’t deter me however and I went on to blitz English all the way through my schooling life. Yet somewhere between growing boobs and discovering boys, my regard for making a living doing something I loved waned and I lost my way a bit.

And I don’t want this to happen to my kids.  I don’t want them to get to my age and be in a job they are simply tolerating and not enjoying. Something they “fell into” because they didn’t consider their options. Because I wish someone had sat me down at 16 and said “What do you like doing?

Think hard about this because you’ll be working for a VERY long time so it may as well be at something you love.” And I think at 16 the fundamentals are there. You don’t have to have a precise picture, but you can find out what is your child enjoys doing the most.

Reading, writing, kicking a ball, building structures with Lego, drawing, staring at sharks, debating, swimming, singing, tinkering with cars – WHATEVER it is that interests them.

Except drug taking.

Unless they want to be a professional sportsman.

I am KIDDING.

I was asking my boys about this on the way to school the other morning. As usual we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic and the boys were arguing about who had the right to clap to the song that was playing on the radio (I wish I was making that up) and I was trying to distract them. I asked them both what they’d like to be when they grow up. After initially having an argument over who would ‘go first’, these were their answers:

Sam: 10 years old: “A house designer. Or maybe an architect like Grandpa or an archaeologist. I think mostly though I’d really like to be a Parapsychologist.”

I was like, wait what?  (FYI – Parapsychologists study a  number of ostensibly paranormal phenomena including telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, near-death experiences, reincarnation and apparitional experiences) Okay then.

Jack: 6 years old: (After little contemplation) “An actor. Or play for the Hawks.” Then he told me he could spell KFC. Which he couldn’t.

Thing being jokes aside, this is what these kids are into right NOW. Jack loves his footy and can impersonate nearly everyone he meets.  Sam likes all of these things above thanks to a healthy interest in Minecraft, ghosts and prehistoric sharks.  I have no doubt these passions and interests will change over time, but the basis won’t. I just need to keep checking in with them.

My 13 year old daughter wants to be a writer. She is certainly angsty enough and so far has shown a voracious appetite for reading and diary writing. There was talk of being a teacher at one stage but I’m pretty sure she was just in it for the holidays.  I’ll keep checking in with her too.

As for me, I am only just now, at the age of 37, starting to get into the field I have a passion for, writing. Maybe this is how it was meant to be – gain some life experience first so I could fully appreciate how wonderful it is to start earning money from something that I love, something that fills me up and never feels like a chore.

Having said that, I am going to do everything I can to steer and guide my children towards theirs sooner rather than later. So they don’t waste a minute.

What did you want to be when you ‘grew up’? What do your kids want to be?

Bern is a Gen X, child of the 80′s. Kept busy being a working mother of 3 children, one with Aspergers, renovating the original money pit and drinking too many coffees in the space of 24 hours. One day she’ll remember to leave the meat out for tea but until then she writes beautiful and amusing posts on her blog which you can find here.