When Mommy Grows Up...

The sky is the limit!

As part of a school project, my kids and I have been talking a lot lately about what they might want to be when they grow up. My son wants to design vac trucks (the bigger the better!), drive a school bus, and play guitar and keyboard in a band. My daughter, also on the band kick, wants to be a rock star, as well as design clothes and be a cook at a restaurant. It is so refreshing to see their youthful, innocent enthusiasm! For them, the possibilities are truly endless.

And then, my daughter innocently asked me this week, “What you wanna be when you grow up, Mommy?”

Laying aside the fact that I’m already an adult and thus have been ‘grown up’ for quite some time, I gave it some thought. I remember when I was a little girl I had a huge list of things I wanted to accomplish by the time I was 30:

• Publish a book
• Become an astronaut and jump on the moon
• Train to be the NFL’s first female quarterback and win a Super Bowl
• Dig up a new species of dinosaur
• Build a machine that could turn Monopoly money into real money
• Design and build unique houses for famous people
• Become a singer/songwriter/rockin’ guitarist
• Develop super powers and fight crime

With my twenties winding down, let’s just say I’m falling a little short here on the life goals! Publish a book? Well, I’m getting close with this one…if only I could finish one novel, instead of starting a new one every few months. My astronaut ambition? With the NASA cuts and the physical strain of the training, it’s not going to happen…unless I write it into my book, of course.

NFL’s first female quarterback? Again, the physical strain would kill me…if the opposing team didn’t do it first. A dinosaur archaeological discovery? Hey, this could still happen someday, just not before I’m 30. Building a Monopoly money converter? It’s a lucrative idea but quite illegal (hello, money counterfeiting!).

An architect for the famous? I doubt it, but I still hope to design my dream house someday. A music career? Nope, that’s not going to happen either…although the songwriter part is still plausible. And my super hero dreams? Um, this one is probably the most unlikely out of all of them (read ‘virtually impossible’ here)…unless of course, I get so rich from my books and songs that I can hire a team of scientists to make me Iron Woman.

All kidding aside, I think I’ve made progress, but my life goals are still evolving. Perhaps we never do actually grow up in this sense, no matter how old we get. Life is all about changing, growing, and reinventing ourselves. What is important to us now may only be a distant memory tomorrow. I think what I want my children to learn the most from their school project is how important it is for them (1) to find the things they love, (2) to keep dreaming big, and (3) to never be afraid to start a new dream.

Moon Stalker Madness!

As my children’s knowledge of the world around them grows every day, I sometimes forget that they are only young children and as young children, they don’t always realize that we are not the center of the universe.  Recently, my daughter (almost 5) has been acting strangely every time we are in the car at night.  She stares up at the night sky and gets the weirdest expressions on her face.

At first, I merely assumed it was because it was late and she was tired.  Last week, though, I noticed that she was having frequent nightmares and finally asked her why she had been acting strangely and having bad dreams.  As I sat on the edge of her bed trying to comfort her, she looked cautiously out her bedroom window and whispered, “The moon is being mean!”

Immediately, I whispered back, “What do you mean the moon is being mean?!”

She blinked her big brown eyes at me and clutched her stuffed animals to her chest.  “It is everywhere and it won’t stop following me!  When we’re in the car it’s there.  When I look out my window it’s there.  And even when Daddy goes super fast it’s always there.  It’s creepy!  Why won’t it just stay where it’s s’ppose to?”

I gave her a big hug and then sat her in my lap.  I explained to her that the moon isn’t alive.  It’s just a hunk of rock going around our world in outer space.  It is always where it is supposed to be.  Since it is so big, it is very hard to get away from it.  There is nothing to worry about at all when it comes to the moon.

My sweet girl let out a sigh of relief and said, “Okay!”

I tucked her back in, gave her one last goodnight kiss, and reminded her that the next time something was scaring her, she should tell me right away.  She smiled and then drifted off to sleep, dreaming peaceful, happy dreams at last.

As I watched over her for a while, I smiled to myself remembering my own moon misconceptions as a child.  At one time I, too, thought the moon was stalking me.  Later, though, I was convinced that a silly old man lived on the moon and watched me as I tried to see him, eating moon cheese all night long.  (That was also my theory as to why the moon changes shape.  The man keeps eating and eating until he has to stop and make more moon cheese!)

I also wondered what other silly misconceptions lie hidden in the minds of my own children--and someday, my grandchildren.  What crazy times might lie in store for all of us!  In the end, though I couldn’t help but laugh because if my kids and grandkids turn out to be anything like me, they will have a zillion!