6/19/2006

When you grow up...

So far this summer I've had two young houseguests, one 8 months and the other 2 years old. I am not typically around people this age. One thing I've noticed is that adults are anxious to assign a future profession based on some physical or personality trait of the child. For example, if a baby spastically kicks their legs a lot, often you'll hear, "Wow. She's going to be a soccer player." Or if they like to bang on pots and pans, "Hey, looks like you've got a drummer on your hands." The problem is that the professions are usually ones that are extremely hard to get into and often require highly specific skills that would be difficult to detect at such an early age. I think we should start being honest with parents and stop filling them with false hope. The fact is their child is probably going to grow up to be an accountant or a sales rep of some kind.

3 comments:

Moderator said...

My kids both LOVE spreadsheets. I tell them they'll be the first female Major League Baseball players ever.

Jenny Jenny Flannery said...

I never see future careers for my girls except when they start dancing on a table or swinging around a pole. Then I fear that they will be strippers.

Jenny Jenny Flannery said...

Ha! Thank you Chris...This was a fun trip down memory lane.