In the past, if you asked kids what their dream job was, or what they wanted to do when they were grown up, they would probably mention engine driver, soldier, nurse, teacher or doctor. My own kids would say accountant because they get lots of money – my boy and pet shop owner because all families should be able to have pets, even if they can’t afford them – my oldest child. Thoughts have gone into their decisions, my boy was driven by cash, my oldest child by the need to help out those less fortunate than herself.
They both even knew how they were going to get the most from these jobs – my boy decided that if he worked in a fuel station when he was in education, he would become skilled at how to handle money and that would be good for a potential accountant. My oldest child would give pets to those who could not afford to purchase them. I asked her about how they would afford to look after them if they could not afford to purchase them, but she would not be moved – if children wanted pets it was out duty as a society to be sure they were able to have them. Oh the innocence of childhood!
I would rush to add that neither of them have gone on to do these jobs, my oldest child works in a help desk environment and my boy did a music degree course, while working in a pub as a chef, but my point is that kids have certain ideas about the type of job they think they will want to do when they grow up, and for all my kids spent hours and hours playing computer games, and finding their way around the internet, neither of them thought for a moment that they could get employed in the Internet Business when they were grown ups. It just did not dawn on them that these were really things that were produced by people with jobs – jobs were hard work, not play!
This could well be because kids do not consider that they could Work From Home – parents go out to work don’t they? Those that do Work From Home are usually childminders if kids are aware of them at all, and they probably do not really consider that these people are working, they are just doing their own mummy and daddy a favour.
However, happily, more adults are actually being lured towards Online Jobs and the opportunity to work in the Internet Business. Much of this has most likely been driven by the current recession and folk being being faced with redundancy. With so many redundancies, people are having to think outside of the box in order to find their perfect job and so Online Jobs are now being taken seriously as a way of working from home, but making a profit from it.
As kids see more and more parents choosing to Work From Home, it may be that they decide in future generations that they too would enjoy this type of job. They may think becoming a game developer, working on search engines, creating web pages. These are all roles for the future and for future generations, and it would be great to think of our kids having a key role in this growing industry.