Last summer we found an incredible lot of vintage books at an estate sale. Would you believe that we are just now getting around to looking through them? Awful, I know, but there is no shortage of vintage to ponder in our house and sometimes things sit for a while before we get to them.
Jorn and I were reading through this book last night. At first I was just drawn to the illustrations. Greg and I don't ever ask the kids what they want to be when they grow up, I kind of really dislike the question. The kids do a great job of offering that information on their own, they never need to be asked. It's fun to imagine yourself in different roles, or in this case professions, and imagine what a life like that might be like. Jorn really enjoyed reading the book and it was exciting to identify the "professions" that I have held or hold. His eyes really lit up when we got to Farmer and Homemaker, he had never thought of being 'mommy' as a profession! We were happily surprised to encounter Ice Cream Maker too (see that mom and dad, it was a profession!). And, just before I got pregnant with Jorn I had taken and passed the NY State Trooper exam. I was on my way to Police Academy when I found out that I was pregnant so I decided not to go forward with it which is a really good thing in retrospect for obvious reasons, but my intention was to be a Mounted Trooper in the state park system.
What was really interesting was the lack of Greg's jobs. There was no IT consultant, project manager or anything or the sort and since college that is the (professional) world that Greg has basically dwelt in. I found myself wondering how this book would look if it was written now. Do they even write books like this for kids anymore? Maybe these would take some of the places...
A: App developer
B: Blogger
I: IT manager
N: Nanotechnologist
W: Web developer
Later, I found my childhood memory book that my mom had given to me a few years ago. In the book it asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I answered, 'homemaker' and 'the first female player on an all male polo team'. I got the first one down pat and the latter is kind of like being a Mounted State Trooper, right? So there you go.
So, what did you want to be when you grew up? Are you that? Do you wish you were if you weren't? Do you think 'professions' are a thing of the past? Are you grown up yet? ;) Do tell.
