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Original poster

What do your kids want to be when they grow up?

48 replies

GreenCaterpillarOnALeaf · 18/02/2026 16:21

Or if they are grown up, what did they want to be and did they become it?

DD and DS have a career day thing coming up soon and DD wants to be a vet which is pretty easy, but DS apparently wants to be a professional darts player “like grandad”. My dad is not a professional darts player, he plays darts and does do competitions but these are old boys comps at the pub. How am I going to dress up a 5 year old as a pro darts player? Fake pint and beer belly? He is dead set on it though so I guess I will have to work something out. Before this he wanted to be an explorer, so maybe pro darts is a more realistic career choice.

What did you want to be? I wanted to be a pop star but my mum told me “you need to be able to sing or have rich parents to pay for auto tune and you have neither”. Then I wanted to be a teacher, then work in the civil service (did an IR degree). Now I’m a private maths tutor so get to do all the fun teacher stuff without having to work in a school.

OP posts:
Greenfinch7 · 18/02/2026 16:25

My children never seemed to know what they wanted to be when they grew up. Well, one of the three of them wanted to be a football player, but knew that was impossible by the time he was 8 or 9, then he wanted to be a cellist, which is what he is now...

The other 2 kids never seemed to know! In their late 20s, they are finding their way, through circuitous routes.

ShortColdandGrey · 18/02/2026 16:26

A paleontologist with their own museum.

LadyCrustybread · 18/02/2026 16:41

Dsis wanted to be a geologist. She’s a doctor. I wanted to be the President of the U.S…. Became a writer.

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5 year olds
Holymolyrigmorole · 18/02/2026 16:51

I wanted to be the manager of the local swimming pool. I later had ambitions in architecture, journalism and for a short period I considered becoming a nun. I am none of these things.

DC1 wants to be a model, actor or politician
DC2 wants to be a history prof at Oxford

UniqueBlueUser · 18/02/2026 16:53

I wanted to be a librarian. By which I meant unlimited books. I became a nurse

BarnacleBeasley · 18/02/2026 16:54

I wanted to be a Famous Author. Of children's books, obviously, because books for adults were boring. DS did want to be a marine biologist, but now he wants to be an artist. He also wanted to marry his best friend but now he is going to be an artist instead. Apparently this isn't compatible with being married.

Redishrek · 18/02/2026 16:56

There’s a range. One wants to develop a cure for long covid/have their own shop selling sweets and cakes/be a gardener, one wants to be a hairdresser/doctor/artist, one wants to be an inventor/scientist/parkour teacher/engineer/author.

Buffybot12 · 18/02/2026 16:59

I wanted to train dogs to dance. People would bring me there dogs in the morning and they’d leave trained to dance. Sadly this didn’t work out…

MinnieMountain · 18/02/2026 17:00

DS(12) wants to be an aeronautical engineer.

PURPLErainiswhatmadePrincegreat · 18/02/2026 17:03

I had a whole life package dream: to marry an American farmer with blonde hair so I get kids with blue eyes and blonde hair and I was to be a writer. Married an English teacher lol, have one child but she has golden curly hair and blue eyes

she has 0 clue what she wants to be. Something easy peasy

Buscake · 18/02/2026 17:03

11yr old - footballer
13yr old - social worker
15yr old - something in forensics

I wanted to own a chocolate shop 😂 I’m a LA service manager 😂😂

FlowersInPots · 18/02/2026 17:04

I wanted to be an archaeologist. Then journalist. Then novelist.

Dsis wanted to be a baker or work behind a bar.

DH wanted to a fireman, soldier then some sort of company boss.

None of us are any of those things.

LO wants to be a superhero or work in a shop (he's 4) 😂

LittleRoom · 18/02/2026 17:05

DS(13) wants to work in sports and or nutrition.
DD(10) wants to be a vet.

As for your costume conundrum, what about cutting circles from big pieces of cardboard, painting them to look like dartboards, and he wears them front and back, sandwich board style?

Could make a couple of blunt darts (wooden sticks, silver painted point on one end, couple of feathers on the other) and attach them to a hat or headband.

FlatStanley50 · 18/02/2026 17:05

Mine wants to be an ornithologist / conservationist AND a musical theatre performer. She's 11. When she was 5 she wanted to be a trapeze artist.

BertieBotts · 18/02/2026 17:05

DS1 is 17 and has no idea but something in tech.

DS2 is 7 and desperate to be a tram driver but I think he might be more of an engineer type. He loves building elaborate door mechanisms out of Lego.

DS3 is 4 and is adamant he's going to be a policeman.

RS1987 · 18/02/2026 17:06

DD9 - work for NASA
DD7 - footballer

Jaq27 · 18/02/2026 17:08

DD was mad on Egyptology, Indiana Jones and Lara Croft and always wanted to be an archaeologist.
.... She is now an archaeologist 😀
DS wanted to be an animator, a games inventor, a coder and more.
... He is now a software engineer who animates and develops games in his spare time 😃
It's been lovely seeing them have clear interests from an early age and supporting them towards their chosen career.
Both now in their 20s.

givemushypeasachance · 18/02/2026 17:09

When I was a child I wanted to be an RAF dog handler. Pretty specific. I think I'd seen them at a display or on TV. What I actually wanted was a pet German Shepherd...

Namechangedasouting987 · 18/02/2026 17:09

DS1 wanted to be an architect. He is 22 now and about to start a marketing grad job. He did do fine art at uni tho! He didnt like maths enough to persue architecture!
DS2 wanted to be a doctor or teacher. He is in 3rd year of med school
DD wants to be a pro football player. Or an environmental scientist. And is on course for both, at uni abroad playing football and studying.

ReturnOfTheToad · 18/02/2026 17:14

Dd wants to be a nurse, this is a pretty recent aspiration before then she had no idea. Ds wants be a translator, he is bilingual but is worried that AI will take over that soon enough so is wavering on that. Languages are his passion though.

Original poster
GreenCaterpillarOnALeaf · 18/02/2026 17:15

Jaq27 · 18/02/2026 17:08

DD was mad on Egyptology, Indiana Jones and Lara Croft and always wanted to be an archaeologist.
.... She is now an archaeologist 😀
DS wanted to be an animator, a games inventor, a coder and more.
... He is now a software engineer who animates and develops games in his spare time 😃
It's been lovely seeing them have clear interests from an early age and supporting them towards their chosen career.
Both now in their 20s.

That’s really nice that they’ve had such clear paths and stuck to them! Also very cool jobs objectively. I’m pretty sure DD will do something with animals at least even if it’s not a vet. As for DS I don’t know about pro darts, but apparently that Luke Litter paid off his parents house so maybe I should be taking him down the pub to see what he’s got

OP posts:
1000StrawberryLollies · 18/02/2026 17:20

I decided age 12 that I wanted to be a teacher, so that's what I did, and I'm still doing it age 54. Dd (20, will be in her last year of uni next year) has no clue what she wants to do. Ds is 17, off to uni to study law next year and wants to be a barrister. I just want them to do jobs that they will enjoy and which will make them financially secure.

hoodiemassive · 18/02/2026 17:26

My ds wanted to be a palaeontologist at 5 then a GP. He has a place to study archaeology at Uni but think he’ll gravitate to something better paid.

I wanted to be a clown then later a magician - sadly was crap at both and ended up in PR (a hybrid of both clown and magician ha ha!).

mollypuss1 · 18/02/2026 17:28

Dressing him as a darts player is pretty easy, you can get darts shirts in kids sizes now. Just add a pair of black trousers. Darts players don’t drink (on stage) anymore either.

Darts has changed a lot since the Jockey Wilson days!

MoondustandFairies · 18/02/2026 17:33

Our eldest had lots of ideas - a roadworker with a big shovel, a paleontologist & for a time a cowboy who would ride from one side of USA to the other. But he was in the Navy initially & is now a farm manager.
Our youngest was going to be a professional moto-x rider, all over the world. And he's a farm contractor- so machines of a sort. And he used to ride moto-x for sport growing up.

But happy is what I've pretty much wished them to be.
They have a lifetime of work ahead of them so to try & find something they enjoy for some/most of that time