work

When i was small, i saw my dad leaving home everyday. I asked my mum why my dad went out everyday. She told me "Dad has to go to find money"
Then in my mind, i saw him finding money with other men in a big box full of coins

Jerry Wong

When you're little, the standard question from grown-ups is always, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Since everybody kept asking me, I thought that I had until my high school graduation to decide, and then that would be my job from that day on. I could never understand why everybody didn't decide to be rich and famous.

propchick

i wondered what parent did at work it seemed to me that they partied like drinking beer and stuff like that. i really wanted to go to work after that

why do you have to know

I was never sure what I wanted to do when I grew up but my mom was always talking about a particular type of people and how they were 'taking over the country'. I thought this sounded like a really good job so decided i wanted to be a foreigner too!

Jezabelle

In the musical Fiddler On The Roof, for years I thought a 'matchmaker' was a person in a town who made matches for a living...Couldn't understand why anyone would do that for a living. I finally saw the musical in high school and hit my forehead mid act, 'duhhhh!'

Idiot on the Roof

I used to believe that work would end. All the adults - like my mom and dad - were working. All the time. And they must be working toward something. Some goal. And when they were done, we would all just relax.

Juaneis

I was a precocious child who wanted to do everything, no matter how difficult. I most desperately wanted to be a doctor, but not just any doctor. When adults would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would loudly proclaim, "An oral surgeon!" I couldn't understand why every grown-up just laughed. I thought "oral" meant "every type of surgery known to man." How could someone not take such a noble profession seriously?!

Brent

when i was really small i thought that there was only three jobs in the entire world. so when people asked me and my two boy cousins what we wanted to be i would say "Nurse!"because i was the girl, and my cousins wuld say "fireman!" and the other, "police man!". its really wierd that i thought that because i didnt know any one in my family that was a nurse, fireman or police man

intelligent 4 year old

When I was a child I wanted to grow up to be a cashier at the grocery store, because I thought all the money in the cash register was for them.

Raya

I used to think that when someone got fired it meant they were tied to the moon and people on Earth would throw torches at them.

Mike, Sarasota

When I was 5, we went to my dad's office after hours (it was probably around 7 pm). My mom told me not to touch anything, so I wouldn't break it. I was standing there really politely, my hands behind my back. (Incidentally, we had gone to pick up something that my dad had left and needed--he wasn't there, but the building security guard had let us in.) I got bored, wandered over to the window, and there was this little machine sitting there that printed checks. (For all of you young'uns out there, it was this odd thing that you stuck the check in the bottom, pushed manual typewriter like numbers on, and then pulled a big handle, like a slot machine, and it would print the numbers on the check in rainbow colors.) Anyway, I was bored, and I had been allowed to play with this thing before, so I grabbed some blank paper, stuck it in where the check went, and pushed some numbers. As soon as I went to pull the handle, the alarm in the building went off--and it was loud!!! The security guard ran out of the office, and my mom grabbed me to run out of the building--I was really scared! I thought that I had done it by playing with the check machine, especially after I had been told to not touch anything!!! And, I thought the police were on their way to take me off to jail! Needless to say, I never disturbed ANYTHING in my dad's office again!

Kimberly

i used to beleive that the prefix "self" meant "un" or "not" (god knows why, but i was reminded of this because my son recently made a similar mistake so i cant be the only one - it just felt like it meant that)#
anyway - because of that my mum once asked me what i wanted to do when i grow up
i said "self employed"
my mum said "oh, great, so what are you going to be doing then?" and i of course, said
"nothing of course (like, duh) cos i had truly meant unemployed. needless to say this didnt go down too well ...
unemployment is an ambition i have tried diligently to realise and i am proud to say that i have indeed enjoyed several long sabbaticals in accordance with my childhood dream, with only short intervals of regular employment to spoil things

chrissydontsurf

I used to believe that my aunt who goes to wark at Jupiter, Florida, went to the Planet Jupiter.

Frankalicious

I used to believe that if you put on a pair of black rubber gloves you'll turn into a grave keeper.... I know totally stupid ah????

Anon

When I was six I believed that being a real estate agent was the best job in the whole world because (to me) all you did was scribble on papers with real nice fancy pens, circle pictures of houses you liked, brings your friends around to nosy through other peoples houses, and make millions of dollars a year.
That was my dream, at 6, to be a real estate agent. HA

Kristine, Florida

I used to think “create jobs” meant creating new lines of work rather than opening up employment opportunities

Anon

I am an Air Force brat and my dad was always stationed at SAC bases, and he also did not drive. When stationed at Offutt AFB, SAC Headquarters, my dad told me that the missile in front of base headquarters picked him up for work in the morning. I never did ask how he got home after work. I have to admit my kindergarten teacher sure looked at me weird when I told her that "a rocket" took my dad to work in the morning.

Lizz Mehegan, Riverside, CA

My son had a belief that as soon as you owned shares, you automatically got your own desk and office and you'd be right for life! If only he knew then what he knows now!

Anon

I believed that grown ups got paid their whole salary once a year (sometime around Christmas I think, because I'd heard of Christmas bonus'). I was really shocked to hear that they only got little bits all through the year.

ani

my dad used to do electrician work for people at their houses. i went along with him several times, and the kids on the street used to come upto him because he wore a uniform. he used to tell them that there was a monkey inside the van. i knew there wasnt, but all the kids did.

stevie