My husband and I are both attorneys. We have often said that we don’t care what our children grow up to be… so long as they’re not attorneys or exotic dancers. And we’re willing to bend on exotic dancers.
I fear we may lose that battle with our youngest daughter. She’s three (almost four) and over thinks everything. I fear she’s going to be a litigator.
Last night, in an effort to stem a terrible trend of “that’s not fair” coming out of my daughters’ mouths every second, I made them a deal. The one who said “that’s not fair” the least for the week would win a small prize. However, if either girl made it through the week without saying it at all, that girl would get an ice cream sundae – complete with chocolate sauce and a cherry.
My oldest daughter got very excited.
My youngest daughter thought for a moment and said, “What’s the small prize?”
She also usually tries to negotiate how much she has to eat in order to get dessert – a skill that needs work, she negotiates backwards:
“Mom, I’ll eat one piece of chicken for dessert?”
“No, eat two,” I’ll answer.
“How about three?” she asks.
“Sold!”
(I didn’t say that she would be a good attorney.)
My oldest daughter, in contrast, has already told me, alternately, that she will be an artist (“and people will buy my paintings”) or a princess who owns a unicorn (why not dream big?).
What do your kids want to be? What did you want to be? In honor of Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day on April 24, the Business Channel is asking our readers to think about career choices. Just for leaving your comment, at the end of the month, you may be entered to win a gift card to Barnes and Noble for $25.
And yeah, there are some rules. There are always rules. You can find them here.
You only have the rest of today to get your thoughts in… What do you want to be when you grow up?
Mine aren’t sure yet – but one says an Agricultural Engineer and the other says anything that makes a LOT of money. He has champagne taste and doesn’t want a beer bottle pocket.
I don’t have kids yet. When I was a kid I dreamt about being a scientist, but now I’m a computer programmer dreaming about being a professional puppeteer. Random.