Product Review: Patti’s Perfect Profession (Hardcover} (Age 3+)
Patti Just Can’t Seem to Decide What She Wants to Be When She Grows Up!
I had a lot of ‘professions’ I thought I would try my hand at when I was growing up because I felt I needed to decide quickly on one thing so I could get done with school and start work quickly. I wanted to support myself and did not want to work crummy jobs longer than I had to, which is one great thing about starting a minimum wage job in high school. You realize you don’t want to be making subs for obnoxious jerks who yell at you for not working fast enough when you have a line out the door. I’d much rather get yelled at from inside a cubicle away from food. The most hilarious thing that my mom did for me (and I am doing for Brooke) is keeping track of my thoughts and ideas each year in a memory book. One of the questions starting in kindergarten was, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ It took so many twists and turns throughout the years (my favorite is still my ventriloquist phase! Hilarious!) until I decided I would be a programmer in middle school, until my first course at 15. Then I quickly decided Economics was my plan mostly because I could ace the class without studying (it just seemed easy to me for whatever reason). I wanted to study historic aspects of economies and make predictions but life had other plans when I realized no one wanted to hire a 20 year old recent female undergraduate to make business predictions on their behalf. However, years later, I am now happily analyzing information and doing more technical writing than I thought I’d ever be doing as a career. But I still hold out some hope at finishing my TESOL certificate and teaching ESL overseas. I also still hold a piece of being a rock star or at least a legit song writer in the back of my mind. Perhaps one day I will also finally learn how to really dance, paint more realistic pictures and sing without damaging my vocal chords unnecessarily. Is there really a perfect profession for each of us? If so, how soon are we supposed to figure it out?
Patti’s Perfect Profession is a hilarious story about a red headed five-year old girl named Patti O’Shea who is determined to find her career in the world. Since she is known for her fiery red hair, she decided being a hairdresser was the way to go. Except that her hairstyles weren’t exactly up to par. In fact, her friends laughed at her and said her hairstyles were too wacky for them. Patti decides she can change and do something else…and then something else…..darn it, is there a right profession for Patti, after all? The book is inspiring and makes me realize we are all unique with different strengths and that careers do not define us, we define them based on what we bring to the table. I love the message to kids that while we are lucky to have a lot of freedom in our country to choose the path we want to go on with our life, it is really finding something we love and are good at doing that can make our professional lives satisfying. That never means settling, or just going with the flow and instead constantly improving and sharpening new and old skills. I’ve made many career leaps, both for personal and professional reasons, and I’ve learned from each one. I don’t want to push Brooke to make those very personal life decisions on her life’s path because I am still out there finding my way around the world of professions and gaining competencies I never thought I wanted or needed. And, maybe, just maybe, that is just the best thing for us because I may be growing older, but growing up is much different and I am still figuring out what I want to do with my life each and every day.
Interesting Fact! The illustrations are uniquely done by the author who cut out all of the images from construction paper. Wow!
Patti’s Perfect Profession (Hardcover} (Age 3+)
List Price: $ 14.95
Momma's Bacon 