New Professions

What are your children interested in being when they grow up? My two started out predictably: as with most boys, they have a passion for Fossils, one that was fed when we were lucky enough to visit the T-Rex Museum in Tucson. The T-Rex Museum, which sadly is now out of business, was created and run by a retired Paleontologist. It was a small place, crammed to the gills with Fossils and hands on projects. It was, in the words of it's owner 'The sort of place I wish there had been when I was a kid.' Upon leaving it, after our first visit, my youngest said, decisively "When I grown up, I am going to be a Paleontologist." My eldest, ever insightful, responded "Xander, you don't have to grown up to be a Paleontologist. Just DIG!"

This budding passion morphed a bit for my eldest after we made a weekend trip to the Stone Rose Site in Republic Washington. At this site, a dry river bed, amateur paleontolgists can dig for their own fossils. The only caveats are (1)significant finds are kept and catalogued by the museum and (2)one can only take a certain number of fossils home per day.  This experience plus a hefty dose of reading (Please note: The link will take you to an Amazon list. You can then find the books/videos at your Library if you don't wish to purchase them) about the Prehistoric seas led my eldest to his new passion: Marine Paleontology.  In that vein, he decided that his focus in Boy Scouts would be, when he is old enough, a branch called 'Sea Scouts'. We are lucky in this respect: one of our closest family friends is a Sea Scouts Captain and, better yet, a Geologist by training.

But, of course, while boys like Dinosaurs, and while the passion for Fossils still animates my sons' souls, their ideas about what they 'want to do when I grow up' continue to change. The latest one caught even me by surprise: My youngest has decided that he wants to be a Blacksmith... now, hmm... he has informed me that he is going to (1)have his forge in the Barn (GULP!) (2)that he wants to be apprenticed to a working Blacksmith (Do they take six year olds, Mommy? I want to start NOW!) and (3) that he needs to 'build up' his muscles because Blacksmiths have to be 'strong.' (Grin. He started his 'weight training' program by manfully carrying our HEAVY library book bags to the care for me. He had been hefting them around the library and demonstrating his muscles to the bemused librarians.) And his older brother, the budding Marine Paleontologist? Well, he still wants to do that but now, as a complimentary position to his brother's blacksmithing, he has decided to learn how to be... a KNIGHT! Yep, complete training is required, Mom. And after all, he points out to me, there is no reason whatsoever that he is restricted to ONE ambition...

Sigh. Who knows where we will end up. Meanwhile, I need to start helping them to hunt down information about Knighthood and Blacksmithing. Wish me luck!