Introducing the concept of careers to kids

[kyliekaw]

Hi fellow parents! My 6-year-old recently asked about what I do for a living, and it got me wondering when it's a good time to introduce kids to the concept of careers. How did you approach this conversation with your children?

I'm not sure we ever introduced the topic as such we just... talked about our day which would include what we did at work along with what they did at school and evolved from there. And then their obviously aware of some careers from people they see out and about (bus drivers, the hairdresser, lollipop lady, whatever) and then from school?

I've never really approached it. Since DS started at nursery when he was 1, he knows that me and DH have both gone to work. He knows that his dad does things with numbers and I have a lot of meetings. Both of which are pretty accurate.

You start with jobs, no need to get any more complicated than that. My kids always knew what we did because they could come in on occasion.

Careers is definitely mid secondary school level conversation

I think they have the concept of jobs very early on because they see builders, bus drivers, the police, shop workers etc etc etc. They also know that you go to work. You just talk about each job as it comes up. You can talk about what they might like to do when they grow up, but I wouldn't expect that to stick!

You Choose is a good book for prompting discussion about different jobs.