They Have Dreams of their Own

I remember a relative who had grand dreams for her children. The only problem was that they were her dreams and not the dreams of her children. She wanted her sons to be lawyers or doctors. While I can understand why she would want such wonderful professions for her children, they had no interest in what she chose. In fact, to her embarrassment, one of her sons wanted to be a garbage man. Don’t all little boys want to be Garbage Men?

Now that I look back, I think that if she had of simply gone along with his decision, he might have outgrown it. On the other hand, if he wanted to collect garbage for a living, that should have been his decision and she should have been happy that he had found something that appealed to him.

But the reverse happened. He outgrew his mom…