Be it the nosey uncle who visits your family once a year, the friendly mom at a playdate or your child’s nursery teacher, or even you! At some point, we have all made this mistake when talking to our children about the future. Why do we always ask our children “what they want to become” when they grow up and not “who they want to become” when they grow up?
Why should their answers always be something centred around professions like doctors, engineers, auditors, writers, etc? Why can’t we give ourselves more credit for who we actually are? And what if our children want to try something new?
What’s In Store For Our Kids?
A World Economic Forum report suggested that by 2030, a whole new range of jobs would come to play, that don’t even exist today. How are we then preparing our children for the future? How do we tell them that it is okay to dream big and aim high?
The one thing I have learnt from my interviews with established and successful people across the parenting and baby care space is that they dared to dream big. Reminded of a conversation with famous baker and author Shivesh Bhatia who credits his mom for his success. Imagine giving up a career in political science to take up a passion for baking and food blogging. Would this be possible a few decades earlier? Tough to answer. Thanks to supportive moms like Shivesh’s it is now accepted and I hope will soon be the norm too.
But as parents, we need to ask ourselves this question:
Do we make the mistake of typecasting our children’s aspirations and putting their dreams into a box? Like a checklist?
How To Know Our Kids Better?
Simple. Spend 10-15 minutes every day talking to your children about what they like, what their passion is, and who they want to be when they grow up. (Of course, the answers will change every year, but isn’t that the beauty of raising kids?!) There are days they claim they want to be an astronaut, a traveller on other days, a teacher later, and a writer on some days. That’s the beauty of young kids and their dreams. Unlike being rigid like us adults, children are flexible and that’s something we need to inspire to be.
As a mom of two, I have resolved to show my unconditional support for my girls’ dreams. More than anything else am sure, it is the ONE thing that gives them the strength and wings to fly high! From my conversations with educators, counsellors and mental health experts, I have understood that we need to foster open communication with our children to understand them better. Inspire in them a growth mindset, set realistic goals and most importantly listen more to what they have to share. You learn a lot about them in the process.
And remember parents, never say never! We are at the cusp of a digital explosion that makes everything possible in life. Inspire your kids to aim big and go for their dreams. Watch them soar high! Just knowing that you are around in their corner is the strength they need to shatter the glass ceiling!
Janani S Koushik
KSP Team
