Earlier this week, Graham and I were talking about the kids and their futures. Everything is changing and developing at such a fast pace at the moment that I’m pretty sure when they come to be at a working age, a lot of the jobs we see now will be obsolete. Before kids, I was a teacher, and I do wonder whether, in 20 years or so, that will still be a job in the same way it is now, or whether computers and the internet will have taken over. I’m pretty sure that Graham’s job, in a bakery factory, will be long gone, with machines and robots doing it all. It’s quite a weird thing to think about – blogging and social media, which is my job now, wasn’t even heard of a few years ago!

I look at the three boys now and their strengths and their passions. They are all so young still, and I know that their personalities, talents and what they love will all change as they get older. However, when I was Alex’s age now, four, I knew exactly what I wanted to be as a ‘grown up’ – a teacher. For 20 years, it was the only job I ever wanted to do, and I was lucky enough that I was able to go to university and train to be one. Had I not had kids, I would probably still be one. Harrison has always said he wants to be a policeman, ever since he was old enough to speak, but Alex changes his mind every ten minutes, and of course, Ben…well, if you asked him what he wanted to be as grown up, he’d probably answer ‘fast car’!

So what do I think they might be when they are older?

Harrison – well, as I said above, he always says he wants to be a policeman, and I think there is a good chance that he could be one. He loves playing ‘cops and robbers’, both at home and school, is obsessed with watching any police programmes on the TV, and has very clear ideas on what is right and wrong. He has no qualms about pulling someone up in the street if they drop litter, or doing something they shouldn’t be.

Alex – He’s never really said what he wants to be. Sometimes he wants to be a policeman or a racing car driver. Other days it’s a fireman or a doctor. Personally, I think there is a good chance that he might end up doing something connected to science or maths. He’s got an incredibly inquisitive mind, constantly asking questions. We can be on the way to school and he asks me questions about how things work, why things happen and what things are made of – last week he was asking me about blood and what it was made of. Quite a lot of the questions he asks are beyond me, and I have to google for the answers. He’s also very interested in numbers. He quick fires maths questions at me (catching me out a lot of the time) and can answer addition and subtraction questions pretty quickly.  He likes to pull numbers apart and find different ways of making them – which is an amazing skill for a four-year-old.

Benjamin – He’s two and has only just really started talking, but I think he will end up doing something with animals. Even as a tiny baby, he would watch what the cats were doing, and would try to play with them. Bobby, our first cat, was a grumpy old sod, but he loved Ben, and Ben loved him. The first thing Ben does when he wakes up is look for Ellie and Daisy, and he will sit there for ages just watching them, stroking them and playing with them. When we are out and about and he sees a dog (which is very often around here!), he goes and asks the owner if he can stroke them and play with them. He seems to have a real affinity for animals, and they seem to love him back.

Whatever happens, whatever they decide to do as they are older, I want them all to love what they do, to enjoy getting up in the morning and going to work. I want them to have jobs that allow them to have lives, not take over their lives. I want them to be successful, I want them to be able to live comfortably, but most importantly, I want them to be happy.