What do you want to be when you grow up?
Have you ever asked your kids this question?
When my boys were little, I would ask the question and get cute, dream-big answers such as; “an astronaut”, “a fireman”, “Tim Lincecum” (um – without the weed?), “rich”, “anything that does not require college” (there goes that whole ‘rich’ idea).
But when my boys reached a certain age, it became ‘uncool’ to answer this question and my inquiry into their future plans was met with blank stares, I don’t knows, or scary answers meant to silence me from asking the question ever again such as “the garbage man” or “a guy who mutters to himself”. It worked. I quit asking.
But, last weekend, as we were driving around in the car, Pre-teen,out of the clear blue sky (which is where he likes to draw ideas from) exclaimed,
“Being an ice cream tester would be a cool job”
And that was when I had one of those brilliant Mom moments aimed at tapping into the illusive psyche of my Pre-teen and Teen. Ok, well it may have been my only instance of brilliance to date. Be that as it may, I quickly jumped into pre-teen’s musings.
“Really? What other jobs do you think would be really cool?”
And without hesitation, Teen and Pre-Teen, in complete and full agreement with one another (thus the 8th Wonder of the World was established), fired off for me a list of their ideal and sought after cool jobs (and various accompanying colorful comments). As follows and in the order they were given to me:
Video Game Tester
Super-Model Photographer (“Now there is a job you wouldn’t mind working over-time!”)
Sports Announcer
Body Guard for an Actor (“Someone cool and funny – like Johnny Depp”. I sense some possible perks for Mom here.)
Secret Service
Bouncer (“’Cause, you know, you get to be all buff and stuff”)
Any type of Professional Athlete except Curling (unmovable they were on this point of specification)
Olympic Athlete
Monster Truck Driver
Architect
Gun Designer (what can I say; we live in the country…)
Scientist for Black Cat Fireworks (not placing a whole lot of value on protruding body parts)
Car Tester (I didn’t have the heart to break it to them, crash test dummies pretty much have that job all sewn up)
And lastly, of course what all kid must want…or maybe it is just mine,
The Actor in “The most interesting man in the world” Dos Equis Commercials…
And here, was the end of Teen and Pre-teen’s list of future aspirations. Really, though, where else does one go from there?
Surely, as a Mom, I am so proud.
And in some cases, possibly a little sorry I asked.
