Playmobil surveys kids ambitions

[CountBogro]

you lucky <censorred> ... but then again; you're welcome to it. I get seasick even by the mere mention of the word sailor 

Bogro

[Indianna]

. . . All I have to do is watch the difference in my own children's behaviour. When they are playing with Playmobil, they are even-tempered and happy - it's really a joy to watch. When they are playing Mario Kart on the Wii and trying to outrace a cartoon character, they become unnaturally competitive and angry. Yes, I know it is my fault as much as theirs for allowing them to have these games in the house.    . . .

  There is something wacky about Mario Kart - we don't have a Wii but my kids had that game on the Nintendo 64 and even my daughter (then a young teen who never played many video games) got really crazed when playing it, but at least she and my son (then about 7 or 8) were doing something together!      But don't be too hard on yourself, Sylvia - kids today are practically required to play some sort of video game just to be considered normal by the other kids - and just think of that excellent hand-eye coordination that they are developing!     As long as they also have Playmobil in their lives (and you for their mum) your kids will turn out just fine.   

[Timotheos]

After reading the article, I reached the conclusion most here reached--the article makes a good point about selling toys that tap the imagination, but it doesn't really say much about career aspirations.

I mean, what sane eight year old is going to aspire to be a bureaucratic pencil pusher?  And, unless they grow up watching "Matlock" or "Perry Mason" what kid is even going to know what a lawyer is?  (except in terms of the guy who helped Mum and Dad divorce....)

And "firefighter" is the proto-type childhood career ambition going back to the 1950s at least.*

* I don't remember ever actually wanting to be a firefighter.

My daughter may be the exact opposite of Bogro's son.  She has no career ambition at 4 yrs old other than the explicit statement she doesn't want to be a farmer.

Curious, I asked her why.  "Too much work." 

[Timotheos]

Yes, I know it is my fault as much as theirs for allowing them to have these games in the house.

My four year old is already slipping in directions I don't necessarily want her to go.  I can't force her to regard "Baby Einstein" as a fraudulent marketting scam...

But seriously, I don't think you can take the competitiveness out of kids.  Those in the USA who believe they can raise perfectly docile gentlemen and gentleladies, who discuss secular humanism and the importance of charity when not playing with Playmobil's (non-violent, domestic) themed playsets are probably setting themselves up for a humongous guilt trip...

Actually, I ought to correct myself.  Most Americans seem to want to raise aggressive beasts, judging by the passions (from parents) that explode at Junior Football (soccer) matches...

A better playmobil theme might be "jocks and geeks", in which the geeks are all smarmy and contemptible...

[playmofire]

As some people have pointed out, the conclusions of the survey are flawed as it is comparing aspirations of children today with the actual careers of their parents and also assuming that in the past children wanted to follow "popular careers" of the day.  It would have been interesting to compare parents' aspirations as children with those of their children, making allowances, of course, for the appearance of new jobs, e.g. in computing.

I know at one time I wanted to be an archaeologist and a racing driver (there were only 10 or 12 GPs a year then with racing finishing in September at Monza and not starting again until the Spring at Monaco, so there were a good few months available for archaeological digs).  I ended up, after working in business for a short time, as a teacher and then moved into examination administration.  How did that compare with my father's working life?  Well, he started working in industry on radio development, moved into education in the RAF in the 1930s, then transferred to developmental work in the RAF on "bending" the navigational beams used by the Luftwaffe and after the war went back into teaching, ending up as a headmaster.  How did that compare with his father's working life?  Well, he joined the Royal Engineers as a Sapper, gained a commission and transferred to the Queen's Own Royal Madras Sappers in the Indian Army.  Strangely enough, his father's career (my great-grandfather) had largely followed the same course!  So not much of a pattern there, apart from the case of my great-grandfather and my grandfather, and that is probably largely explained by the strong tendency for sons to follow fathers into the armed forces or other uniformed organisations, e.g. police and fire.

[Martin Milner]

My dad was a draftsman, but I never had any aspirations to becoming a CAD designer which would be the modern equivalent. My mother was a social worker, then a teacher for 12 years, and a headteacher for 18, but I never wanted to go into teaching.

I can't actually recall having any childhood ambitions, but I certainly didn't dream of becoming a Credit Controller.

[Timotheos]

I can't actually recall having any childhood ambitions, but I certainly didn't dream of becoming a Credit Controller.

Oh, come off that, Martin.  When we were kids growing up in Tajikistan you always played the credit guy in our games of debtor vs. debtee.

But seriously, bizarrely, I programmed computers all the time as a kid but never considered a career in software until age 24, two years into college.

My dad was an accident claims agent for the railroad.  His father was a church janitor after circumstances forced him to quit his job as a railyard worker (a job in California that strangely required background checks similar to Rasputin's father... maybe he was doing something else...).
 
Yet, I've never had the slightest aspiration to work railroad.  Oddly, my ambitions took me into the armed forces.  It was the armed forces that steeled me to seek a better life in engineering...

I have no idea where my daughter will go... a lot of engineering daughters go into "humanities related" jobs, perhaps because they didn't grow up under the same economic pressures as dear old dad...  If my daughter goes into the armed forces as an enlisted person (like I did), I'll give her a live hand grenade...