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My daughter wants to pick strawberries or dry cars at the car wash. I was going to convince her that she "shouldn't" aspire to do those things but then I realized we should encourage kids to follow their dreams - especially girls. We should never discourage girls from their desire to make it in male dominated "professions".
My kid wants to be a motorcycle racer (he's 5). Of course you encourage your kid but kids don't know the reality of life - they don't give as much thoguht to quality of life (time off, having a boss vs not, health insurance costs, benefits, income, taxes, write offs, etc.).
And kids, even older one's don't really think or even know of the non-glamorous yet good professions. So I personally believe it's up to us as parents to understand their strenghts, weaknesses, personalities, interests, and desires and use all that to not only encourage what they say they want but to expand their awareness of what we think may be best.
When I was in about grade 10, everybody had to prepare a 5-minute "speech" about what they wanted to be when they grew up. One very quiet girl who never talked to anybody or said anything in class wanted to be a Mortician, and she described all the things a mortician has to know how to do. Not morbidly, that's what she really wanted to do as a career, and her topic was well-prepared.
I said I wanted to be a baseball umpire, because I knew I wasn't good enough to be a professional player. I actually wound up getting paid to be a baseball umpire, a few nights a week, for local parks and rec. I didn't tell anybody I was legally blind by then.
I wanted to be a school bus driver, and then I wanted to be an astronomer. What can I say. My parents were always good about getting me books relating to subjects I like, and taking me on trips to planetariums etc.
Still, nothing that "pays well" has really grabbed my attention as an adult. I feel like I'm interested in everything, but all of it at a surface level. My parents tried though!
This will be rough on me if my kids end up like this, how to guide them when they are interested in EVERYTHING, but only a little bit. Probably have to just help them find their strengths and try to figure out how to parlay it into a career.
Two summers ago we bought an ice cream machine and my husband experimented with making all sorts of flavors of ice cream. People gave him lots of compliments on his ice cream. Since then, my daughter has wanted to own an ice cream shop and make her own ice cream. She is 7 now.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a vet or a pediatrician for a while, but by high school I realized that meant seeing lots of kids or animals who were sick and that might be sad. I also didn't have great people skills. So I decided I wanted to work in a research laboratory and find the cure for AIDS. And now, I do work in a research lab, but I work on leukemia, not AIDS.
Daughter (17): nurse
Daughter (15, disabled): work in an office with her dad so she can go to lunch in restaurants (hilarious, because he almost never does)
Son (9): electrician, a master Lego builder, or an arms dealer
When my son was three he wanted to be a tire changer man. Fast forward a few years and he wants to be an engineer. My daughter wants to be a vet tech. My nephew wants to be Scrooge McDuck, lol.
Never had a real plan just winged it so now I have a college degree in Criminal Justice,
I am a trained Mediator for divorce and child custody/visitation
I own my own trucking business.
I've worked in retail,
managed truck stops,
worked in Child Welfare,
was a waitress for a long time,
was a bartender for a long time (before I could legally drink),
I've wrenched on cars,
I've worked restoring original wood floors, painting and general remodeling,
I cross stitch and used to teach that, I am learning how to knit, crochet and quilt, I sew,
I've worked as a data entry operator,
I am a published author
within the next 12 months I am going to open a small restaurant with a small very limited menu.
Cripes, I wore myself out listing all that stuff.
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