Welcome to the Tomball Wal-Mart

From the way she has been running around the house, yelling "Shimber me timbers" and "aye aye captain!" I would have thought she wanted to be a pirate when she grows up. But no, Pricness has even loftier career ambitions. She wants to work at Wal-Mart. She has thrown around many career choices lately, among them, Mailman, Cooker (chef), Doctor, Dentist, and many others. She has asked me what I want to be when I grow up (I told her I would write stories, or be a librarian, :) both of which I knew she would approve of) and has even decided that baby brother will be a home builder when he grows up, like her Uncle Ritchie (if Baby Brother decided he didn't want to be a mailman like her, her most recent favorite career choice). She has even struggled to choose between two jobs, wondering aloud, "how can I be a doctor AND a dentist?" But all these took a backseat the day she realized her dream job. She looked at me excitedly, and said she had the "greatest idea of all!" and proceeded to tell me that she wanted to be the person that hands out money at Wal-Mart. I know Wal-Mart is a wonderful place-- we go there all the time, for shopping and for diversion, and I'm not opposed, per se, to her being a checker at Wal-Mart. Or any of her other career choices for that matter... I have fond memories of going with my mail carrier grandparents, on their routes early in the morning to deliver mail. Any job that provides for your family is honorable. But for some reason, a friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart employee seems different from any of these other careers she has mentioned. I'm not knocking Wal-Mart, because I know it provides career opportunities and advancements for lots of people (just watch the commercials and you'll see), but Wal-Mart was not something I have pictured Princess doing. I told Princess that she can be anything she wants to be, as long as she finishes four years of college. Hopefully, by then, her dreams of walking around the huge superstore clad in a blue vest with a big yellow happy face on the back will have changed. And if not, hey, I'll be getting a great discount.