What do you want to be when you grow up?

I had an amazing conversation with my 5-year-old daughter last night.

We were driving through Boulder at about 9:00pm (much later than she’s typically up at night), and there was still quite a bit of traffic and the town was hopping.

Olivia, my 5-year-old, asked, “What are all of these people doing up so late?”.

I told her that Boulder is a college town and that there are lots of students who stay up late to study, etc.

She asked, “What’s studying?” (Gotta love kids :) )

I told her about college and how people can study to become whatever they want to be.

She told me she wants to be a teacher when she grows up so we talked about what it takes to get your teaching certificate… then we also talked about all of the different types of certifications I’ve gotten over the years.

I then told her that if she ever decides she wants to work with me when she gets older and be an entrepreneur, that there isn’t any particular type of school she would need to go to or any certificate she would need to earn. I told her I’d teach her everything she needs to know, and that I would love having her work with me. I also told her that it’s totally fine with me if she decides that she doesn’t want to go into business with me.

She immediately replied. “I want to work w/ you, Mom.” My heart melted.

Although this is something I’ve thought about often… how I want to teach my children that they don’t have to grow up and go to work for someone else… it’s not something that we had started talking about yet. I’m just leading by example.

But the minute I started talking about how much I love what I do because I get to make such a huge difference for people, she didn’t even have to think twice about it. It’s amazing to me how much kids can grasp at such a young age.

Granted, Olivia is only 5 and she still has plenty of time to change her mind, but I have to admit the idea of being in business w/ my daughters THRILLS me.

It also thrills me to know that the example I’m setting for my kids is having a positive affect on them. What more could a parent possibly ask for?

And now I get to ride on the coat-tails of this warm fuzzy feeling I get when I think about ‘my’ business becoming a ‘family’ business.

Maybe it will happen or maybe Olivia and Ava will end up growing up and becoming rocket scientists, or dentists, or teachers… either way is fine with me.

One thing is for sure… we’ll have lots of fun in the meantime dreaming about our future together.

In my opinion, the “What do you want to be when you grow up?” conversation is one of the greatest conversations we get to have with our children. It’s so fun to hear the things they come up with, before any type of limitations creep into their tiny minds. Wouldn’t you agree?

Have your children told you what they want to be when they grow up? Please share in the comments below… I’d love to hear about all of them!