"I Am 4. I Want to Be ____ When I Grow Up."

Mine wanted to be a chimney sweep (not a clue how he knew this was even a job. He had never even seen Mary Poppins) and a scientist. He is now 10 and wants to be a scientist. Chimney sweep has fallen by the wayside.

teacher, race car driver, NHL hockey player, scientist, rock star .... just about everything. Changed frequently :)

Mine aren't yet in high school or college but some of those interests have stuck through the years

My daughter (now 21) ADORED her dad and wanted to be like him. At a young age, she wanted a laptop like dad's. We got a V-Tech laptop with a mouse and she LOVED that thing and took it everywhere. Would you believe it still works!!

She is now a Senior in college and very much still into our company. She is focused on business, marketing and sales. She is on the traveling sales team and has won a couple of scholarships from winning competitions. I must agree... she is darn good, very pretty and does an outstanding job... Her dad (my hubby) would be so proud of her!! After college, she plans to go straight to grad school.

She works closely with me now since my husband died. Our company has always been relationship based and that is the type of sales we do. My husband was an icon in the industry and many people looked to him for answers. I have always managed the books and financials of the company and he did all the sales and negotiations. Since things have changed, daughter goes with me to sales calls and vendor negotiations. We have maintained the company and made little changes. It is just the 2 of us and we are dead set on making hubby proud!

There were a few times she wanted to be a princess of course (she already was daddy's princess), fashion designer and artist.

Fun question!

Prior to our latest move (last year), I decided it was time to weed out a lot of "stuff".

In my son's pre-school folder there was this drawing. It was a crudely-drawn circle with sticks, but basically recognizable as a human figure. But across where the torso would be this odd shape with a stick coming out of it, facing sideways. Didn't recognize what it could be.

But I had annotated it when he drew it. I wrote on it "______ [son's name] told me that this was a picture of himself with a guitar. He said "I can play the guitar." I had dated the picture, and he was not quite 4 years old. I also wrote on the picture that this was the first time he had attempted to draw a self-portrait. That's why I saved it.

The weird thing is that we didn't own a guitar or know anyone who played. My husband was in the Navy and we are not musicians. My son didn't even own a toy guitar. I don't recall that he had gotten to try to play one or hold one. I guess he had seen one on tv, maybe a Mr. Rogers segment?

Now he has just turned 28. He is a skilled guitarist, and an honors graduate of the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences, and employed successfully as an audio technician who (as part of a team and a studio) engineers live events. He's done sound for Willie Nelson, Z Z Topp, and Kelly Clarkson.

He didn't have music lessons growing up (it was all Little League and soccer teams and lots of moving around due to being a military family). But after high school, he was searching for what he wanted to do. He hated community college although he was doing well in his courses, but he was miserable; he couldn't see himself as a teacher or a health care professional or anything else. We went out for dinner and a long talk. He told us that when he went to shows or concerts with his pals, they were fascinated with the rock stars and the bands, but all he could focus on was the guys running the sound board and the crew that was setting up the microphones. He said "I want to do that but I'm not sure what you study or where". So we did some googling and when he saw "audio engineer and sound technician" he said "that's me" and he was at the Conservatory within 6 months (almost a thousand miles from home). He never looked back and he LOVES what he does.

DS is 14 now, and when he was around that age (4ish), he wanted to earn money. He still does!

When he was 5, he devised a plan for earning money delivering pizzas. So, we went to the dollar store and bought pizzas, which he then delivered to our neighbors (I let them know and gave them money for a tip.) He also did chores for our townhouse neighbors, e.g., lawn work, etc. About 9, he started making and selling dog biscuits. More recently, he's talked about cat sitting.

I think he probably will become either a businessperson running his own business (he wants to have either an animal friendly coffee shop or a locksmith shop) or do something associated with nature, e.g., running an animal rehab center.

He has also always loved science, so I could also see him doing something in science, probably with insects. He may just be one of those talking heads you see on a nature channel who knows an amazing (and kind of scary) number of things about some obscure type of squirrel.

My son loved Back to the Future, so he told his teacher that he wanted to be Marty McFly. A couple of years later he told me that his teacher told him that he WOULD BE Marty McFly. Kids are so funny.

He's 10 and wants to be a paleontologist or work for a wildlife foundation to save wolves.

It's very common for young children to want to grow up to be "helpers" of some kind, they mostly respond with things like doctor, teacher, vet, firefighter, etc. and yes superheroes or princesses.
I remember doing something like this in first grade, for a picture/writing assignment. I said I wanted to be a police officer and my teacher flat out told me girls can't be police officers, she said I could be a mom or teacher or nurse. This was in 1974 :-(

I hope you're not *concerned* that her response was a super hero and not a *real* job.

My littlest one wanted to work at McDonald's. From the time she heard me mention that I had worked as a drive-thru clerk as my first job in high school, that's what she told people when they asked what she wanted to be. For YEARS. Probably until about 4th grade. Then she wanted to be a pilot/mail delivery person... she wanted to drop the mail from her airplane at people's homes. Then there was the farmer plan (wanted to have a farm with every known farm animal...lots of cows). Then for 2 years it was an ER physician. Now, at 15, she has plans to become a biomedical engineer. I have no doubt that, if it's still what she wants in another 3 years, she will do it.

My eldest just graduated in May from HS. He never had a clue what he wanted to do. Not really. Ever. His college direction? He's planning to go into accounting.

My son WAS spiderman (for Halloween) when he was 4. He also was a giant spider (I made that particular costume, and his younger sister borrowed it when she was 3---it was a little big on her). If you'd asked him what he wanted to be (and expected/prodded for a realistic response) he just shrugged his shoulders. He just wanted to play with legos, climb trees, and dig dinosaur bones and treasure out of sand/rock pods.

I remember what my oldest said, in particular. He was going to be an engineer. Like his parents. Who lived in France. Yup. Never a dull moment with that one. He has welding certs but few job opportunities in the area for newbies. Current working pt at our restaurant, and doing landscaping and maintenance work at a local non profit that serves the developmentally disabled. He pays rent. It's the least I can do ;)

The next one was an ethereal experience. Enough said. He's in transition. Also being taught a marketable skill at the restaurant to pay his way while he lives here. He knows more about computers than the above-average intelligent human. No lie.

Our 3rd son thrives on structure. We thought he'd be a lawyer, his debate skills are off the charts, even as young as 3 he would reason out things to a fault. But it looks like the military (JROTC) is his calling. His father and I are avowed pacifists. We are totally OK with this. There is nothing worse than a pissed off teenager. By now, we know this.

The chaos in my youngest's life will, hopefully, not color her first and most important empathic relationship with animals. I see her as a life long pet owner, but am unsure of her career goals.

I wanted kids that were all different, and boy did I get what I asked for :)

My 5 year old until recently wanted to be a periodontist. Now he tells me he wants to live along the coast in China and teach horseback riding.

Your question made me smile. At age 4 my son's wanted to be
Son#1 police man he is now 28 and is an actuary for inovacare he discovered math lol
Son#2 wanted to make video games he 27 and is a senior soft ware consultant with swc in Chicago
Son#3 wanted to be an "army man" that got caboshed because his adhd meds. He is working on a degree in computer generated 3D animation. The goal being a job at pixar, DreamWorks or blizzard as a backup .

But smile was for son #1's first grade response to that question. Teacher had them to write "when I'm 9 I will..." they had to answer and draw a picture. My son's response... get married. He drew a picture complete with bride, groom, priest, alter, cross and rows of guests. I gave it to him recently. He didn't remember it at all lol.

A friend's son wanted to be a 'worker man' man. So cute.

My 6 year old has insisted for several years now that he's going to be a racecar driver.

My older wanted to be a baseball player for a long time. As he got older, he switched to software engineer (he wanted to make video games), then scientist (after visiting a lab), and most recently architect (since reading the Percy Jackson books). He's still in elementary school so who knows what will be next.

My now 10 year old declared he wanted to be a Jedi Knight at his 4 year old preschool graduation, LOL.
Right now he is just interested in Minecraft, baseball and cars....so who knows....
Sure do love their imaginations though.....:-)

My daughter very proudly stated "I want to be a Barbie cheerleader when I grow up!!". She was around 4 when she made this statement. She's 15 now. Her goals have changed a bit. Now she wants to be either a social worker or child psychologist. But I hope she always keeps a bit of the innocent and child-like "Barbie cheerleader" in her heart!

My kid and about 30 others wanted to be a Veterinarian...but my kid has tons of allergies so probably not going to happen!
Honestly, most people don't work in the occupation that their degree trained them for. So even older kids who go to college and have a particular major, what they will "be" is highly variable.

From about the age of 3 until he was probably 8 my youngest was dead set on wanting to be a soda delivery truck driver, now at age 10 he is unsure of his future, lol.

At that age? Crash test dummy.

Wish I had seen the Halloween costume earlier (and had been willing to spend the $50+ that it cost!).

At 4 our son wanted to be
a fireman policeman astronaut paleontologist doctor.
He's graduating high school in the spring and he's going into electrical or robotic engineering.

oh, how sweet!
at that age i think my kids wanted to be professional baseball players and paleontologists. how they loved dinosaurs! but they ran the usual gamut with superheroes, astronauts, and carpenters Just Like Daddy.
my older switched his major from business to music. not surprisingly, he's not working in his college grad field although he does play in a symphony orchestra and a rock band. now he's working on getting his masters in project management to boost his employment prospects.
my younger has a degree in molecular biology, and so far hasn't been able to find a job in his field either.
they're both working in blue collar jobs and paying off student loans.
the job market in this country is depressing.
how my mood changed between starting this response and finishing it!
khairete
S.

My daughter wanted to be an oceanographer. They did a dress up day for it. She wore some flippers and had a mask and snorkel, wore a rash guard shirt thing - RELLY cute. Then she realized that there are sharks in the ocean and she scratched that idea!! LOL. Now she's 12, no idea what she'll do. She's talked about going into some sort of military intelligence branch like the CIA!!!

My son's K teacher did this. One kid responded with 'nice'. He wants to be 'nice' when he grows up! I wish more people thought this way.