When I grow up . . .

Caleb doesn’t just mention what he wants to be when he grows up, he obsesses over it and talks about it constantly. At the beginning of the school year he wanted to be “an army guy that flies in an airplane because the guys in the airplanes don’t die as much.” I was ready to send him to boot camp. For just a few days he changed his mind and decided he wanted to be a “secret agent” so that he could jump from airplanes. Then one day he came home from the library and had decided he wanted to be a racecar driver. He asked me if I would “stand up for him” if he died in the race. He dreamed about what car he will drive and asked his dad to make a car with him “out of all the junk in the world.” Today he had a fireman come and talk to him at school and now he wants to become a fireman. He is busy making our house fire safe and he promises “when our house starts on fire he will get it out.” I wonder what dangerous career he will want to take on next week.

The ironic part about all of these career ambitions is that Caleb is one of the most cautious kids I know. He is terrified of snow skiing although he talks like he is the best skier around. He was dying to be a hockey player so we took him skating and he cried the whole time although he insists that he loves skating too. Maybe by the time he really picks a career he will be as brave as he thinks he is.