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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

What did you want to be as a kid compared to what you do as an adult.

97 replies

Whattheactual20201 · 02/12/2020 06:28

I’m in hospital and my kids are not allowed to visit was just talking to my DD 7 on the phone and she was telling she wants to a ambulance driver when she is older.
It got me thinking about what I wanted when I was younger.
As a young child I wanted to be an astronaut, as I got older but was still at school I wanted to be a lawyer.
At 28 ( now ) I am a pretty successful make up artist and stylist but miles away from the child/ teen aspirations 🤣
What about you ?

OP posts:

Pythonesque · 02/12/2020 17:23

I wanted to be an astronomer from the age of 7. By my mid teens that had generalised to physicist. Being "a scientist" was beyond question. When I went to university (not UK) I had the opportunity to do medicine as well as my science degree. Started training in paediatrics then properly tried to move into research.

Currently I'm a violin teacher.

Although, I am tentatively looking into whether I can get back into a small clinical role alongside my teaching.

I think the real common thread is that I always enjoyed explaining / teaching / working things out. I used to help out in maths at school, tutored for years while at uni. I approach my violin teaching as a "what can I suggest that will help this child do better / make the next step?"

PolarnOPirate · 02/12/2020 17:24

I’m sorry you’re in hospital. I wanted to be a thin pop star. I am a fat singer, so that’s something, and a cake decorator and artist. So not too off the mark.

littlebirdieblue · 02/12/2020 17:27

I desperately wanted to be an air hostess!! But I ended up mostly in admin roles. And now I have my own business making baby clothes for newborn photographers

RuthW · 02/12/2020 17:29

I wanted to be a hairdresser and I was for 7 years. I never really liked it.

SpikeDearheart · 02/12/2020 17:32

I wanted to be a research scientist. I was, for 12 years, then moved into a science-related role away from the bench.

tinkywinkyshandbag · 02/12/2020 17:57

Wanted to be a nurse. I've had a few different jobs but am currently a declutterer.

Sideorderofchips · 02/12/2020 17:58

Pathologist.

Became a science technician.

Girlyracer · 02/12/2020 18:42

Air hostess at school (just for the travel, not to serve cups of tea)
Lawyer in real life.

DesperateInTheGulf · 03/12/2020 00:50

As a child I wanted to be a ballerina! Then I realised I am far too tall so settled on a nurse as I wasn’t academic enough for a doctor.
Was a nurse, had an interesting spell working in refugee camps in the Mediterranean. Now a separated single mum and don’t work, live off the money from ex (which is far far more than I earnt).

I miss how fulfilling and amazing my job was- I remember being at a major haemorrhage at 4am in a tent with just one torch! Now I’m bored and count down the hours until I can see my DD.
Clearly haven’t lived up to my childhood expectations

Thereluctantstepmother · 03/12/2020 00:59

I wanted to be a police woman thanks to loving The Bill
(and gossip), a writer, a mum, an actress, a child psychologist.
I’m a now primary teacher and a mum which scratches all of those itches!

IJumpedAboardAPirateShip · 03/12/2020 01:05

I wanted to “travel around the world in a gypsy caravan saving endangered animals” 4-7, then go to Borneo and work with orangutans 7-10, a brief ) months at that point wanting to be a pig farmer (!!), then an astronaut 10-12 then I found acting and was torn for YEARS, thought I would like to do astrophysics as my “side” job for acting until I got to university and realised I was a shit actress despite years in NYT (oh and I failed my first year of A Level physics and maths!)

Now I’m a performance director, basically direct actors in whatever medium I get work in. Have worked in theatre for education and development, run my own theatre companies, built immersive experiences, made a few short films and shadowed on TV with the aim of directing tv eventually but thanks so covid ALL my work has been directing audiobooks, which has been my side job for a while, and building my cv to do more voice directing

So a world away from zoology which was clearly my childhood dream!

IJumpedAboardAPirateShip · 03/12/2020 01:07

Hope you feel better and get to see your DD soon OP

newnewnewbuild · 03/12/2020 01:30

I wanted to be a magazine editor, I work in marketing so not the same but not a million miles away

I like the idea of having a couple different careers in life.

If I have the time and the money in a few years I'd quite like to do something in the legal industry, maybe some kind of solicitor. If I'd have done that straight from college/uni I think I would have been good at it but to be honest I feel like I've been losing intelligence since the day I left education so who knows if I could cope with retraining now.

I'd absolutely love to be a police detective and have many of the right skills for it but I'm way too fat to pass a fitness test and the money in the early years of that career is quite poor for what you actually have to do.

I also love the idea of being semi retired and working as a lecturer....

So many options in life!

Champagneforeveryone · 03/12/2020 01:36

I wanted to be a policewoman. My actual job is not a million miles away, except that nobody spits at me

MonkeyPuddle · 03/12/2020 01:37

I wanted to be a nurse and I am one.
I also wanted to be a nun, truck driver and a brain surgeon.

TaraR2020 · 03/12/2020 04:07

I wanted to be a banana.

Currently I'm a student (though not studying to be any sort of plant).

TheFormerPorpentinaScamander · 03/12/2020 05:18

I was going to be tall and slim and shop in Long Tall Sally. I was going to be married and have a son and then a daughter. I would work as a nursery teacher, and teach dancing at the weekend.

I'm actually short and fat. I'm single (never married) and have 2 sons. I was a carer and planned to go to uni to do mental health nursing, but had a mental health crisis of my own and am currently too ill to work.

strawberriesunited · 03/12/2020 05:31

I wanted to be a vet, then realised you had to put animals down. So then decided i'd be a lawyer, then had an awful experience in court and thought i could never do that to somebody's life! So now i'm a retail store manager....

Chanel05 · 03/12/2020 05:36

I wanted to be a nurse or cabin crew. I'm very squeamish and can't swim (requirement of crew), so I'm a teacher.

NotanotherboxofFrogs · 03/12/2020 06:07

As a child I wanted to be a heroin addict followed by a social worker specifically in mental health. (I've never done any illegal drugs)

I was in admin for years, then a mental health support worker (had applied for sw and nursing degrees) and then my personal mental and physical health fell apart and I am still working my way back

MedSchoolRat · 03/12/2020 06:14

Wanted to write fiction stories.
Grew up to write non-fiction stories -> scientific research.

Growing up, no one I knew was a scientist or even confident in math. Was a long journey to become a scientist.

stayathomer · 03/12/2020 06:26

Wanted to work with animals, ended up in science, then office, now stay at home mum and author. I still really regret choosing a stable career over veterinary nursing or being a groom/horse riding instructor

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