What will your kids grow up to be? Do they already know?

[Bang!Zoom!]

"Mom, when I grow up I'm going to be a ___".

 

Do you ever hear this from your kids? Do you think they will end up there, or something different?

 

My oldest I was sure was going into some sort of law, ended up doing veterinarian things, and now is headed towards an RN.

 

My youngest here I haven't a clue anymore. But I have seen kids who from a very young age were very decided and stayed with it.

 

What about yours?

[Embassy]

My oldest has always wanted to go into some science field, but switches between animal research and astronomy every now and then. My second child (now 9) has wanted to go into game design and programming. Knowing him, I doubt that it will change. He spends tons of time learning about it on his own right now. My youngest is only 4 and she switches between wanting to be a princess and a lumberjack. I expect hers to change ;)

[Freckles]

We will see how it plays out, but my dd14 wants to be an RN or orthodontist. My little wants to get a business degree and open up a bakery in a small town. She said I can be the frosting manager. hehe

[SarahW]

Astronaut, paleontologist, and a priest. That's when he was 5.

 

He had grand ideas about digging for dinosaur bones on the Moon, but then he began figuring out that dinosaurs didn't live there, so Paleontologist got dropped, and then he figured that he could just take a priest with him in his space rocket, so that started falling off his radar too.

 

Lately (now 6), it's been "instruction builder," which seems to be a vague reference to Mechanical Engineering.

[aggieamy]

DD is eight so it's hard to say but she's incredibly practical and has talked about becoming an engineer. DH and I are engineers and are also very practical so that might be a heavy influence from us. I think I would take to my bed and have to be revived with smelling salts if she told me she wanted to go to art school or become a dancer or something. We have a joke in our family that DH and I are very flexible - DD can become any type of engineer she wants.

[Dmmetler]

DD8 wants to research and breed reptiles, especially cobras and komodo dragons. At age 3, her plan was to discover, breed, and raise dragons and dinosaurs, so I don't think she's changed tracks all that much :)

[FairProspects]

Ds has said from the time he was about 4 that he wanted to be an engineer or physicist. He has wavered between aeronautical engineer, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer but it has always been within that field. Now he says he wants to design weaponry and vehicles for the military and has developed a huge interest in military history, so that may end up being in there as well.

 

Younger ds says he wants to be an archeologist currently, but he changes his mind daily. :)

[Dmmetler]

Well. My three year old wants to be a toaster when he grows up. Not a baker, mind you. A bread-toasting kitchen appliance. lol My 5.5 year old is pretty decided he wants to be a volcanologist. Sometimes he thinks he'll just be "a scientist who loves volcanoes," so we'll see how his sweet little passion changes :-)

 

 

When my DD was in preschool, they had career day, where the kids were supposed to come dressed for their future career. My favorite was the little boy who wanted to be a tractor! (And who had a very creative mom;) ).

[mathnerd]

My soon to be 6 year old son wants to be a long list of things: an Olympian swimmer and then a Tae Kwon Do Olympian and then a computer engineer or a Robotics engineer and then a Chess GrandMaster and then a Opera singer and then a concert pianist and then a Traffic crossing guard and then a Firefighter and then a racecar driver and then the President of the USA - all in that exact same order as described here. Let us see....

(when he was 3, he wanted to be a teacher and paleantologist - life was a lot simpler in those days!)

[quark]

It used to be chef and actor when he was much younger. I think he wanted to be like Jamie Oliver (our favorite TV personality back then).

Lately (for the last 3 years maybe?) it's been mathematician although he says he also wants to be a psychologist and/or a puzzle-writer/maker on the side.

[melbotoast]

I was talking to DS6 the other day about how you can choose what you study when you go to college and he said he wants to learn about "the minus with two dots". :lol: We recently learned multiplication and I guess he's ready for division too :)

[MinivanMom]

My oldest has a long list of things. She wants to be a chef, ballerina, writer, doctor, and actress. Once she was old enough to figure out that she can't do all of these things at the same time, she tried to figure out a way to do them sequentially. She's still working on that plan.

 

Ds7 plans to be a scientist, but he can't decide what kind. He has consistently expressed a desire to be a volcanologist. He has also considered becoming a paleontologist, astronaut, archeologist, or a doctor. He has a long-term obsession with Pompeii, so a lot of his plans revolve around that. He wants to study Mt.Vesuvius . . . or study artifacts related to Pompeii . . . or study other volcanoes to prevent another tragedy like Pompeii. Either way, he's convinced that he needs an Italian tutor to help him master the local language.

 

Dd5 is certain that she is going to be a ballerina and ds3 plans to be a train conductor . . . on a life size Thomas Train. It must be lovely to be young and full of crazy dreams.

[Alice]

Ds9 says he wants to “help peopleâ€. He’s not sure what that means, he has always been drawn to being in the military or a policeman but there are also things he doesn’t think he could do in both jobs. I see him as an engineer or scientist.

 

Ds6 says “a regular guyâ€. He also sometimes says artist or sometimes uncle. (Guess who has a cool uncle who is an artist?)

 

Ds3 says she wants to be a butterfly. :)

[Staceyshoe]

My 7 y.o. says he wants to be a scientist (still undecided about the specifics). I will be very surprised if he doesn't. He's been *obsessed* with science since he first got his hands on a science encyclopedia.

 

My dear 4 y.o. hears his brother talking about being a scientist, hangs his head, and laments, "I don't know what I want to be when I grow up." Poor little guy! It doesn't matter how we try to explain that he doesn't need to know and most people don't. He feels behind somehow. :(

[boscopup]

My oldest has wanted to be a "storm chaser" since he was itty bitty (like 2 or 3). He LOVES weather and is pretty good at reading the radar and telling me where a storm is heading. While I don't know if he'll really be a storm chaser, I could definitely see him being a meteorologist, doing the research side (not the TV news side). We'll see. He's only 8. I wanted to be a veterinarian most of my elementary years, until I fainted when my new puppy got a shot. :lol: Then I wanted to be a band director all through high school. I changed to Electrical Engineering the summer before I went to college. My EE dad didn't even see it coming. :lol:

 

DS2 says he wants to be a "builder". We talked a bit about what kind of builder he wanted to be - ie, construction or architect or engineer. He wants to be an engineer, designing cars and airplanes. I can see him doing that. He says he'll design a car for DS3. Sweet. :) When we came back from a Disney trip last fall, he wanted to go back, so he said, "Let's go to the airplane store and get parts to build an airplane!" He even asked if we could use the van tires for the airplane. Um... I think the van needs it's tires. :tongue_smilie: Anyway, I think this kid would make a very good mechanical engineer. Now last year, he actually wanted to be a preacher, and I could see him doing that too. He also wants to travel a LOT. He loves traveling. And he wants a bunch of kids (yay!). I told him if he lives near me, he'll have free babysitting. :D

 

DS3 has gone through preacher, policeman, and today even said teacher just because the receptionist at the dentist asked him if he wanted to be a teacher when he grew up. :lol: This kid is sooooo outgoing. He talks and talks and talks, even to strangers. The other day in Sam's, a lady came up to us and said to him, "You are so happy. You make me happy!" :) And he does. He just makes everyone around him smile. So I don't know what he'll be, but the people around him will probably be cheered up a bit, whatever it is. ;)

[Mukmuk]

We had an interesting conversation about this :).

 

Mathematician.

 

Ds love weapons too! He loves how they work, the trajectory, the design, the pros and cons of German vs Russian tanks and so forth. To him, its physics in motion and he spends a lot of time thumbing through this massive tank book I bought for $5. Last year, he wanted to be a weapons designer, but he now thinks he would have felt awful if he was the designer of the AK-47.

 

He thought of going into the financial industry (DH is and I was in it) but says it doesn't help mankind. :o

 

So, mathematician it is. He says its remarkably beautiful and there are many practical applications and new possibilities - we're going through physics and he loves how the equations speak. He's hesitant about being a physicist though, because of its link with nuclear bombs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mandylubug]

My two boys both state they are going to have their own place together, work for game stop, each have their own dog and eat in their living room while gaming when they grow up. They have high hopes and dreams :(

[aggieamy]

I have a niece who wants to be a horse. Not work with horses ... literally be a horse. Fur, hooves, and mane.

[knittingmama]

DD (9) wants to be a veterinarian and has wanted to be one since she was around 2-3 years old. So far no change at all. Not even the slightest wavering. (Although she has gone from wanting to be one at a zoo to just a veterinarian for "regular house pets.")

 

DS (7) keeps talking about something to do with planes. It varies, but he is pretty sure it is planes for now. Just a year ago he wanted to be one of those forest firefighters who go up in helicopters. Yikes.

 

DD (5) would like to be a ballerina. :)

[Joker]

My oldest has said since she was about nine that she wanted to be a lawyer (we only have one in the family). Then, at 11, she said her ultimate goal was a judge. Her world is so black and white that I see how she would be drawn there, but I would feel really bad for those who have cases brought before her. :tongue_smilie: She hasn't really wavered and is a teen now, so we'll see.

 

Youngest knows whatever she does will be with animals. She thinks she'll be a regular animal vet, but she is infatuated with marine animals so I think it will be more in that direction. She's also a bit of an artist and loves that as well, so I could see her going in a whole other direction. She has plenty of time.

[Mélie]

Ds6 has been saying he wants to be a physicist for at least a year now, but he's been tossing in "mathematical chemist" since we toured a lab a few weeks ago. I can definitely see him working in the hard sciences.

 

Ds5 goes back and forth between a non-fiction writer ("I want write real stories about real people so that no one will forget that they really lived" :wub: ) and a doctor.

[beaners]

My 5 year old is intent enough on being a "fossil hunter" that our science next year is focused specifically on earth science, geology, local rock formations and glacial activity, etc. She's had a lot of recent interest in Ice Age mammals, which I might attribute to the fact that there are more semi-local resources for those than actual dinosaurs. She's been charting the exploits of Roy Chapman Andrews in Mongolia for more than a year now, and has a special "Oooooh, Mom!" specifically for when she reads something about Protoceratops or Oviraptor, who were found on a dig he was involved with.

 

I don't expect it to be the same thing that she wants to do when she graduates, but I always wished my parents let me actually DO more of what I dreamed of as a kid, instead of patting me on the head and smiling at how cute I was being. She wants to play at discovering fossils like any kid would, and I've got a torn up patch behind the house to prove it. But since she keeps asking for something more, something *real* to do, I'm trying my best to offer it the way I wish it had been offered to me. If she moves on to something new in a couple more years, that's fine too. I'm enjoying it almost as much as she is.

 

Come to think of it, a couple of my best friends from elementary school recently told me how funny it is that I'm still doing the things I always wanted to play at as a child. Dogs, "homesteading," dinosaurs, math. I'm living the dream, baby. ;)

[MASHomeschooler]

My oldest has a long list of things. She wants to be a chef, ballerina, writer, doctor, and actress. Once she was old enough to figure out that she can't do all of these things at the same time, she tried to figure out a way to do them sequentially. She's still working on that plan.

 

This is my oldest, too! For a couple years, I believe it was artist AND teacher AND doctor AND writer AND president AND mom :). She's now 7.5 and hasn't talked about it as much lately, but has started to limit which ones she mentions, and we have discussed that some things would be possible to do "on the side" and/or "just for fun" (like art) and she has mentioned maybe doing some things serially, now that she understands she can't do it all, all the time. I see her maybe working at a university, researching and maybe teaching, but we'll see.

 

My 5yo has mentioned a few things, but separately. Most recently, I believe, was firefighter. That, doctor, and teacher seem to be the most-often mentioned. I could see him doing any of those - I guess most likely to me at this point would be a math or science teacher.

 

I don't think my 3yo has announced her aspirations, aside from repeating her brother's (so last I heard was firefighter). She's so different from the other 2 so far; I'm not sure what to expect. Maybe she'll be like my similarly "spirited" sister, who has gone from one thing to another in her 8 years since graduating college, but really dives in passionately and does each thing really well while she's doing it - and who also has lived with my parents a couple times for a few months, taken "menial" jobs while searching for the next big thing, etc., which would all make me anxious, but worked out fine for her.

 

But, my kids are so young, I should probably print this off to have a good laugh at how far off I was in twenty years! It is interesting to think about, and to read others' thoughts about their kids as well.

[Delirium]

An artist, a teacher, a cosmologist/astrophysicist, author, game graphics designer. So, nope, not yet!

[Maela]

Dd(5): author, illustrator, singer, archaeologist, historian, mother, and astronaut

Obviously, she'll probably have to pick just a few among these. ;-). Right now, I would bet on author/illustrator

 

Ds(3): daddy. (And he wants to marry me. When I told him he couldn't; he said he'd marry daddy. LOL)

[SnegurochkaL]

My oldest daughter(10) and my son(6) want to be robotics engineers and they know the name of the college they will be attending. My daughter most likely will choose Computer Science and my son will be involved into electronic/computer science engineering. They will be getting a new EV3 Lego mindstorm set for Christmas.

My second daughter(4 years old) hasn't decided yet, but she wants to be a figure skater, a gymnast, a dancer and to speak several languages. Right now she is just skating, doing her math and learning some Japanese.

My 2 years old little scientist and engineer experiments with everything she can get hold of and having lot of fun

[Greenmama2]

It's in my signature ;) DD has wanted to be a ballerina since age two & unlike most ballet obsessed little ones it hasn't faded at all. She currently takes five dance classes a week and wishes she could do more. She has wanted to be a scientist since a year or so later. Now at six she is quite aware that a ballet career is likely to be short lived & is therefore planning to go into science afterwards. Which branch changes weekly or even daily.

DS has been saying he wants to be a builder for about a year, which given he is 3.75 would make it around the same time as DD's ballet so I don't expect it to change a lot. He has an almost uncanny ability to see how mechanical things work at once glance or how to balance a whole lot of things on top of each other to create a desired effect be it aesthetic or mechanical. I think the question with him is more if he will become a practical, labourer type builder, an engineer, an architect or some kind of artistic combination of all three.

 

ETA when I asked DD before bed she said just what I wrote with the addition of chef. She would like to be a chef in a restaurant and write cookbooks, to which she added that perhaps she would write other books as well.

[Luckymama]

Ds (now 19) always wanted to be a Lego designer. Now he's studying computer science.

 

Dd (now 18) has wanted to be a teacher, ballerina, princess (as in marrying well lol), writer, teacher, stage actress, writer, editor, teacher, actress, writer. She will major in English/writing in college.

 

Dd13 has lately talked about cryptology. Math, especially really puzzle-y math, is her thing. She likes to read the various pages on the MAA website about math-related careers :)

[mom2bee]

We have a joke in our family that DH and I are very flexible - DD can become any type of engineer she wants.

Similar story here, I always say I'll let my kids pick any STEM major they want--except for Biology.

[Occasionally]

DD wants to be a writer (and has for years.) DS7 wants to be a robot engineer. DS4 is convinced he'll be an astronaut, but sweet DS2 wants to be Superman.

 

It reminds me of my brother, who wanted to be either a fireman or the Pope when he was little. Why the Pope? "Because he gets his own country." He's a lawyer now.

[AnIslandGirl]

Dd9 wants to be an obstetrician. She has been researching schools, scholarships and costs of running a practice vs. actual income. The other day she was asking if a mid-wife's malpractice insurance was as high as an obstetrician, because "if you open your own practice, you'd want to have the flexibility for your patients."

I don't see her backing down on this any time soon, but we'll wholeheartedly support her in whatever path she ends up choosing.

[cmarango]

My dd (5) has said for a while now that she wants to work in a hospital helping families.

[shellbelle]

6 yo- vet

 

8 yo- artist

 

11 yo- astronaut/robotics/engineer... definitely something science related.

 

Interestingly enough, the 11 yo wanted to be either a garbage man or a monster truck driver when he was a preschooler.

 

The 8 yo wanted to be a "person who eats cake" when she was younger. No, not a baker, an eater of cake! She was very adamant about it too.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

Neither of my boys have decided what they want to be. I suspect they'll choose something STEM related based on their interests. Although they both love history quite a bit too.

 

 

We'll see!

[Black-eyed Suzan]

My 6 year old son has wanted to be a train engineer since he was 2. He continues to cherish trains.

 

My 3 year old wants to be a construction worker.

 

Clearly they have high aspirations. One of the girls in my older's preschool class wanted to be a spy. Now that is an interesting preschool career choice!

[Halcyon]

Youngest has definite plans to be a fashion designer and an anthropologis. Older is shooting for navy seal PR swat team.sigh.

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

Builder Boy is going to do something connected to building. We've suspected this for a long time, and he's told us it's what he wants to do when he reaches Daddy's age and goes to work. He's very interested in eco-homes and alternative building supplies. He's 6.

 

Early Bird is like me: he loves/is interested in EVERYTHING, except for the things BB is interested in, lol. I think he might end up being a Vet, possibly at a zoo or a wildlife preserve, and do extreme rock climbing/mount biking as a hobby. But he's only 4 (in just a few days) so he's got time to discover other things.

 

 

ETA: I LOVED reading all the replies! :001_wub: :001_wub:

[jar7709]

DD said "wacecar dwiver" when she was 2-3. But then she switched to "paleontologist" and hasn't wavered from that for a few years.

DS used to say "astronaut" but switched to "inventor" once he realized how dangerous astronauts have it. We'll see. I do not know where they will end up, but I am having fun helping them get there. :)

[chicagoshannon]

My (almost) 6 yr old wants to be an astronaut, ballerina, clothing designer, librarian, police officer, baker, and zoo keeper. I think she's going to be a missionary (scares the bejeezus out of me).

[LMD]

My oldest has a long list of things. She wants to be a chef, ballerina, writer, doctor, and actress. Once she was old enough to figure out that she can't do all of these things at the same time, she tried to figure out a way to do them sequentially. She's still working on that plan.

 

 

Sounds like my oldest - she said she needed to figure out a way to grow more arms so she could do it all at once... strange thing she is!

 

She wants to be an artist, doctor, baker, farmer, violinist... I'm sure there's more... Artist seems to be a recurring theme though, she said she wants to be better than Vincent Van Gough.

 

 

My older son used to say he wanted 'to be a Knight and fight sin', then a few years later he surprised me by saying, out of nowhere, that he wanted to work in the church. Maybe there's a theme there and I'll end up with a missionary or minister son?

 

 

I'm happy with whatever they decide (really), I hope to give them the start they need to do anything they imagine. I especially hope they have the courage to try.

[AngelaNYC]

Oldest: At 5 she wanted to be Cinderella. At 12 she wanted to interview celebrities on the red carpet on the E! Channel. At 18 she wanted to be an event planner and is currently interning for a great event planning company in Manhattan.

 

Middle: At 5 she wanted to be a dancer. At 10 she wanted to be a dancer. At 16 she still wants to be a dancer, and a choreographer, and own her own studio by the time she is in her mid-30s. She is in the right school for it all.

 

Youngest: At 5 he wanted to be a football player or hip-hop dancer. At 8 he wanted to be an actor/singer. At 12 he is seriously considering a career in computer programming - and being a pop star.

[lisabees]

It's in my signature ;) DD has wanted to be a ballerina since age two & unlike most ballet obsessed little ones it hasn't faded at all. She currently takes five dance classes a week and wishes she could do more. She has wanted to be a scientist since a year or so later. Now at six she is quite aware that a ballet career is likely to be short lived & is therefore planning to go into science afterwards. Which branch changes weekly or even daily.

DS has been saying he wants to be a builder for about a year, which given he is 3.75 would make it around the same time as DD's ballet so I don't expect it to change a lot. He has an almost uncanny ability to see how mechanical things work at once glance or how to balance a whole lot of things on top of each other to create a desired effect be it aesthetic or mechanical. I think the question with him is more if he will become a practical, labourer type builder, an engineer, an architect or some kind of artistic combination of all three.

 

ETA when I asked DD before bed she said just what I wrote with the addition of chef. She would like to be a chef in a restaurant and write cookbooks, to which she added that perhaps she would write other books as well.

 

 

:lol: I have a dd like this, too! She is an obsessed little ballerina, now dancing 6 days a week (which will just about kill me as the commute is 45 minutes each way). She also loves science and wants to own a coffee shop! So, her plans are professional ballerina, scientist, then coffee shop owner. In her preschool years, she desperately wanted to be a school bus driver!

 

Ds13 wants to be a physicist/astronomer.

 

Ds16 has no idea. He is my athlete and never sees beyond that world.

 

Ds19 always wanted to be a social entrepreneur. He is now a freshman in college and plans on being a math major, then going to grad school for physics.

 

I always though my kids were humanities-type kids. Guess not!

[Dmmetler]

This thread brought this cartoon series to mind. It came out when my DD was in preschool-and both her teacher and I laughed over it because it was SO DD! (read March 10-13). I apparently can't link the actual images

 

 

http://safr.kingfeatures.com/idn/zone/content.php?file=aHR0cDovL3NhZnIua2luZ2ZlYXR1cmVzLmNvbS9CYWJ5Qmx1ZXMvMjAwOS8wMy9CYWJ5X0JsdWVzLjIwMDkwMzEyXzc2MC5naWY=&tok=e967782c5e20212653a4b3e0b9735003

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

This thread brought this cartoon series to mind. It came out when my DD was in preschool-and both her teacher and I laughed over it because it was SO DD! (read March 10-13). I apparently can't link the actual images

 

 

http://safr.kingfeat...3a4b3e0b9735003

 

The link is not working for me.

[Greenmama2]

 

 

The link is not working for me.

Nor me :(

Lisabees :D

[rdj2027]

My oldest wants to study law and go into politics :scared: . #2 wants to study computer science, youngest boy is going to open his own restaurant and our daughter has her mind set on marine biology and swimming with sharks.

[Mommy_of_4]

My 5.5 yr old wants to be a doctor and his 4 yr old sister wants to be a princess...lol

[Dmmetler]

Try this one. I'm linking now to the search instead of the specific pictures, so maybe it will work?

 

http://babyblues.com/archive/index.php?formname=getstrip&GoToDay=03/09/2009

 

It's Baby blues from 3/9/2009-3/12-2009 or so.

[SKL]

My youngest 6yo (Miss E) is pretty certain that she wants to be a mounted police officer. She has also declared that she has no desire to have children, since she plans to own many horses and does not desire to share them with a bunch of crumb-grabbers. ;)

 

Not sure about my eldest 6yo (Miss A). She is more fickle. She used to say she wanted to be an artist, but I'm not sure if that's still her plan.

 

Personally I think Miss E is more likely to be a communist rebel leader, while Miss A is likely to take care of sick furry animals.

[Pen]

I only definitely know two people who knew what they wanted to be when they grew up from an early age -- and actually became that. I know a few who did what their parents wanted them to do, or went into a family business, but not necessarily as what they said they wanted to do when little.