When I Grow Up

What do you want to be when you grow up?
It's a common question we ask kids of all ages. Do you want to be a fire fighter? A ballerina? An astronaut? A garbage truck driver (ok, my kid has a little bit of an obsession with all kinds of 'mighty machines')? I tell my son every day, you can be or do anything that is in your heart; whatever you want to be when you grow up, you can be! We set our kids up to think the sky's the limit (or at least most of us do). But when did we start telling ourselves that we have to settle?
When I was young I wanted to be famous. I wanted to be an actress. I wanted to be a million different people with the change of a costume and makeup. When I got a little older, and a little more jaded, I decided I wanted to work in child care. I wanted to have my own daycare or preschool and shape young minds. A little older still, in a blip of hope in my life, and I thought maybe I was talented enough to be a fiction writer. Then I hit my mid-midlife crisis and decided I needed to actually pick something to be when I 'grew up', so I went to college for Social Work. I thought being in the helping profession was right up my ally and that was it. When I found out I was pregnant I had the overwhelming desire to be a stay at home mom. Now that my son is getting closer to school-aged, the question "What do I want to be when I grow up" has been bouncing around my head. I don't want to be in the spot light anymore. I would still love to be a writer, but it seems like it's all been written before. I do love shaping little minds, which is why I've been a SAHM/childcare provider for the last 3 years. I also really want to make a difference in our community and help people. Now how can I wrap all those up into one career AND still have the time and flexibility to still be more Mommy than Ms. Scott? Well I have a little bit of time to figure it out... I don't plan on growing up just yet.