Dashed Dreams

When you’re a kid, you have all kinds of ideas about your future life of grandeur.  Astronaut, veterinarian, president of the United States are all popular choices of careers chosen by young children.  Or at least they were when I was a child.

My personal childhood dreams consisted of being a veterinarian, being a famous rockstar, and being a Disney Princess.  Disney Princess is probably the best one but whatever.  All of these delusions stem from a lifetime of my parents telling me I could be anything I want to be.  Which is great, right?  Your parents probably told you the same things.

However, I don’t really think Disney Princess or rockstar is what they meant.  I also doubt that my father’s parents ingrained the same mantra into his head.  His parents were probably like, “You can be a farmer or own a small business.”  Which are fine, realistic dreams that he could have achieved for sure.

I obviously didn’t even try to attain those goals I had when I was six.  I even wanted to be a veterinarian until junior high, but then when I learned how expensive it is to go to school for that, that dream quickly died like the rest of them.

So my question is: how do you raise a child to have dreams without being negative when their goal is just seriously crazy?  Let’s face it, the odds of Hazel ever becoming the next Taylor Swift are pretty much one in a million if not worse.  But she might grow up wanting that life.  How can you give your kids “realistic” goals?  Is there such a thing as a realistic dream?