What do you want to be when you grow up?

When I was around 8 or 9 years old, one Sunday during a primary lesson, the teacher asked us all what we wanted to be when we grew up. My response was that I wanted to be a mom. Now keep in mind the importance the LDS religion places on family and mothers in particular. I didn't give this answer because of that, but it was genuinely what I thought I wanted to be when I grew up. The teacher burst into laughter. Then the children all laughed along with her and the teacher asked what I really wanted to be when I grew up. I felt embarrassed and dejected but still wanted to be a mom although I changed my answer to something else.

Then I went through a period in life (particularly when I was babysitting age) when I decided that the last thing in the world I ever wanted was children. For example, my brothers, Clay and Darren, remind me of the time when they walked into the living room at our house and one of our nephews was an infant and propped at the corner of the couch and just crying his lungs out. I didn't make a move to hold him or take care of him at all. (He was totally safe, by the way). I remember that incident and recall that I didn't really even register that there was a baby crying near me -- the mothering instinct of tuning out must have already kicked in!

I went through my adolescence wanting to be a lawyer, a journalist, a meteorologist, and finally a school teacher. Being a mom never really popped back into mind, although I don't recall wanting to not be a mom, I guess I just assumed that at one point I would be.

When I finished Junior College and was accepted to Whittier College to focus on my teaching degree, I met Geoff and moved across the country to have a relationship and get married. Then the kids came. And came, and came....

But look at me now! I'm a lawyer and a judge (I'd put referee in this category too): I represent the victim and the accused; I impose punishment, and mediate arguments between parties. I'm a meteorologist: I report the weather each morning and advise what clothing should be worn for each day. I'm a teacher (and the principal): I teach reading, writing, shapes, songs, moral lessons, etc... each and every day. And look here, now I'm a journalist (sort of), along with a host of other occupations that is too long to mention. But the best (and admittedly at times, the worst) job of them all is MOM.

Along these lines, this week Samy's homework for school was to dress a paper bear as what she wanted to be when she grows up. When she came home with the naked bear, I asked her what she wanted to dress it as. She said something about a doctor. I was thrilled at the high ambitions of my little girl and said "You want to be a doctor when you grow up?" She said, "No. I want to be the person that goes to the doctor."

A patient? She wants to be a doctor's patient when she grows up? What does this mean? She wants to have a chronic condition, or just be a hypochondriac? And how am I (I mean she) supposed to dress a bear to represent that? Put it in a body cast?

So I asked if she wanted to be a mail lady, a mom, a dentist, a garbage collector - anything other than a patient. No to all of the above. Finally I asked if she wanted to be a Police Officer. She said yes to the Police Officer because she could, and this is a direct quote: "shoot people and put them in jail when they do bad things". That's my girl!




It will be really fun to see what Samy chooses to be when she is a grown up and remember back to her police bear (and aspirations of being a patient).

What did you want to be when you were a grown up?