Career options don't include Iron Man or Papa Smurf

My 4-year-old son, Braden, is at the age where he likes to talk about what he’s going to be when he grows up. This morning he told me he is going to be Ironman. Yesterday it was Papa Smurf.
Since he can’t be a blue cartoon character, and it’s doubtful the technology will exist for him to be Ironman, my wife, Jenny, and I encourage him to think about other careers.
Jenny is pushing for him to be a doctor. She works with all sorts of doctors at Marshfield Clinic, and sees firsthand the need for all types of doctors. As a doctor, she tells him, he would be able to do a lot of good things for a lot of people, and a job is pretty much guaranteed. The pay isn’t bad either.
Since he was 2, she has taught him to say he wants to be a neurologist whenever anybody asks him the question – what are you going to be when you grow up? – but lately she’s been encouraging him to say dermatologist or pediatrician, as those doctors have better hours and their stress levels aren’t quite as high. Plus the pay isn’t bad.
I encourage the whole doctor thing, too, but if he’s anything like me he won’t like anything related to blood, body parts or bones, three things doctors commonly have to deal with in their profession. I once passed out in a hospital when my grandpa showed me his heart x-rays following an operation.
And I got light-headed recently at a hospital when I was with Jenny, who was there to undergo a surgical procedure. It was me the doctors needed to attend to rather than the person there for the surgery.
I would love to encourage Braden in his dreams of becoming a superhero or cartoon character – what boy doesn’t want to be Superman and what man doesn’t still secretly harbor that desire? – but I know that wouldn’t be wise, as he might go through life with a bruised ego when he learns his dream isn’t a possible reality.
I’ve been telling him he should become a mechanical engineer, like his second cousin Ryan who will graduate from the Milwaukee School of Engineering soon. He could apply everything he will learn in school to this profession, which is in desperate need of more engineers, and he could have a lot of fun with it, too. Like playing Lincoln Logs for real and on a much grander scale.
And guess what? The pay isn’t bad at all.
Jenny and I got a scare a couple of weeks ago when we asked him the question and he answered that he wanted to be a hooker.
Not keen on him entering into the world’s oldest profession, I was about to ask him to clarify his answer when he repeated himself a little more thoroughly this time. “I want to be a hooker-upper.” We got him to define this profession a little better and learned it’s the person that hooks up train cars to each other. I’m not sure if the railroad companies employ someone to do this full-time, but I’m guessing they might as someone has to do it.
Braden also gave me a heartwarming moment when he said he wanted to work with me at The Gazette. “What do I do there?” I asked him. “You work on the computer,” he told me. Technically, I spend a lot of time on it, so he’s half right; although I pointed out I write stories for a newspaper. He can’t read yet, so he didn’t bother to listen to the rest of my job description. His newspaper career hasn’t even started yet and it’s already boring him. That’s OK, as newspaper might not exist by the time he’s ready to write for one. Besides, the pay isn’t good at all in this profession.
Whatever profession he chooses I’m sure Jenny and I will support him, as long as he’s happy with it. I know too many people that have jobs they hate, and as a result they are rarely happy.
I almost had one of those jobs after college. With no prospects on the horizon, I accepted an offer from my bosses at Wal-Mart, where I worked throughout high school and college, to go into the company’s managerial training program. I was good at my job at Wal-Mart, and knew I could have been a good manager. I just disliked every minute I was there, and when a job opportunity at a newspaper in Wautoma became available I was quick to leave that job. It’s a decision I’ve never regretted.
Even if the pay at a newspaper wasn’t as good as it would have been with Wal-Mart.
Braden’s got a lot of time to think about what he wants to do. In fact, I hope he doesn’t even think about it until he’s a little bit older. For now his job is to be a kid: it’s the perfect job and one many of us wish we still had. He can be Ironman or Papa Smurf right now if he wants.