Our Children

[chefboy2160]

Hi my friends , this post is about our children that we are raising and what they want to become when they are in this world , on there own , and making a living. I am a single dad with a 13 year old son now for the last 5 years . I started bringing him to work with me at age 4 ( we had our own restaurant for awhile ) and he has always been a very good worker . In all the kitchens I have worked since I have always brought him in to help whenever the chance happened . I have also involved him in many offsite catering events during these years . During the last couple of years he has been helping me do small BBQs for about 300 to 400 people during the warm months . To be truthfull he is of more help to me than my own staff . He just knows what I want and does it . He does prep in the kitchen as well as taking out the trash with the same ammount of heart . He is so customer service oriented and yes this makes me proud . Last year he told me he wanted to be a chef when he is grown because he told me how else can you help people so well but by giving them good home cooked food with love ? I might be selfish but I hope his thoughts and feelings stay the same throughout his life . My father was an Air Traffic Controller and he also took me to work several times trying to get me interested in sitting in front of a raidar screen and talking to airplanes so that I could follow in his footsteps . I could never imagine myself as that ! So what do your children want to be ? Clear skies , Doug.........

[Jim]

Last year he told me he wanted to be a chef when he is grown because he told me how else can you help people so well but by giving them good home cooked food with love ?

Pretty much says it all... about you and him! Very nice, indeed.

[chiffonade]

Doug, it must be nice to be able to rave about your kid like that - I'm sure it does your heart good (and it helps those of us living vicariously through you!).

My kid is a 14 y/o girl who's basically in the "I-don't-want-to-do-anything-remotely-resembling-what-my-parents-want-me-to-do" phase. Check back with ya in about 5 years.

[Gilbo]

Chiffonade,
I have a 20 year old. Having successfully maneuvered teen time, I wish you good luck, much love and deep sympathy! How is it that someone you love, and would die for, can drive you to the point of very nearly strangling them? And she's a she, which made it decidedly harder for me.
She is, however, a whiz in the kitchen, very helpful and willing to do almost anything. Unfortunately, if the phone rings, I'm on my own.

[shroomgirl]

My 16 year old son just left Yesterday to go back to school, KY. starts Aug 6 ....he spent the summer here, the first month looking for a regular flipping burger job. ..kinda hard to find a job when your only going to work a month or two. So, every Sat at 5am he crawled out of bed and helped set up the market..., the guy would help out those that needed it and he will be sorely missed....so the first paying gig other than his mother was at an organic farm for a couple days a week. Again the early rise....6am to get there by 7ish....he picked, hauled, sorted, washed....what a kid. For most of his life I've had to put a bomb under him to get eye movement prior to 8am.... on the days he didn't work he slept until noon....So George wants to develop a Kelvar (is that it?) type of material for military purposes(his father is Army, grandfather is Air force...mother and grandmother are peaceniks....) For a perfectionist that does not care for but does great in school he is setting himself up for many years of college. Cornell has the best program, we'll see if it stays with him for another year.
My 21 year old is still indisisive. He is working through basic classes trying to figure out what makes him happy. He's been on his own with 2 roomies that are not college bound. I can't fathum how he makes his life work with 2-3am hours and am classes. He already learned sitting in front of a computer programming it was not for him....one down a gillion to go.
My 14 year old is in school in KY....has always been creative in cooking. He has autism and it will take a very special environment for him to thrive.
I've told my children that my wish for them is that they find something that makes their heart sing and that people will pay them to do....there is no better way to earn a living.

[Jock]

My daughter is 15 and pretty much like Chiffonade's!!! She has no interest in the culinary arts which is too bad but...... Oh well. She hasn't found her direction yet and we are not pushing it.
When I was her age I was required to make a major life decision about what I was going to do for the rest of my life. (This by virtue of the system that prevailed in Britain at the time.) Of course it was the wrong choice but I'm not complaining. I've led a full and interesting life. As to my daughter, nature will take it's own course, all in good time.

Jock

[chrose]

My son is 11. He really loves his Goosebumps books and is working on the full collection. He will actually sit down and read by himself for an hour at a time! He enjoys drawing as well. He has shown an ability at art and writing, he will be starting guitar lessons soon. He is also suprprisingly quick witted so perhaps something in comedy. So what will he be? Who the **** knows!!! I'd love to see him be a writer, but he loves money too, so being Warren Buffet isn't so bad either! As long as he grows up happy and able to support me in the future I'll be satisfied!

[Headless Chicken]

I'm only 21 so I have no children of my own but I do have a 7 year old cousin who does look up to me. He shows signs of wanting to get into the food industry when he watches cooking shows with me and when he watches me whipping up something in the kitchen.

As a child myself, I never thought of going into cooking and baking as a career. It really wasn't a career choice I thought of until I was 16. Truthfully though, I really didn't know what I wanted to do until I entered high school and even then, I had doubts. Saying what one wants to be when one grows up is so much more different then training for that goal. As a kid, I thought of becoming (like most kids) a doctor but I couldn't get into it.

Its good not to push someone to a career choice they have no interest in. My mother for example kept hinting carpentry and I never went into it. As long as you teach your children good morals, they can make their own choice.

[hedder]

I have a 19 year old daughter. She just left a few days ago to start back at college. She wants to be a special ED teacher.. We have always been so proud of her.. We haven't always seen eye to eye on everything, but I have never been more blessed... I have always allowed my daughter to have her own fews, thoughts,etc, but with those come consequences and as long as she is willing to suffer them, then so be it ( of course within reason ).I've told her I was here to teach her right from wrong, teach her morals and values, and to let her know she will always have a friend.. I think alot of parents think their children are a procession rather then a gift. That's how I've tried to raise my daughter, she has done some great things in her short life, alot of volunteer work, alot working with the elderly. She has also done some pretty dumb things as well , but they have made her into the women she is becoming.. She made the dean list last year at college, so I guess she's doing well.. I am truely blessed and thankful..