My kid can be a monster if she wants to be a monster (& you can, too).

It all started when I pulled the piece of paper from my daughter’s preschool day report.

The piece of paper included instructions for her first work-at-home school project. The topic was “All About Me.”

I was to acquire:

• One small poster board
• Construction paper
• An assortment of “decorations” for the poster

On this poster, we were supposed to make visual depictions of the answers given to several interview questions. We were instructed to tape the answers to the back of the poster.

Someone at the school interviewed the kids and sent the papers home with the answers filled in already.

The problem was – I know my daughter. One of the answers was clearly not hers.

The question:

What do you want to be when you grow up?

The answer:

Nurse

I’m the daughter of a Registered Nurse and the sister of a Registered Nurse. I’m also coach to several Nurse Practitioners. I have no problem with nurses.

I just knew this was not what my daughter would have said.

“Sweetie, do you want to be a nurse when you grow up?” I asked her.

“No, ma’am.” She sheepishly responded.

“Then why does it say that here?” I asked.

“Because they told me I couldn’t be what I wanted to be, and Hannah said she wanted to be a nurse so I just put what she put because they liked that answer.”

“What did you tell them you wanted to be?” I asked while reaching for a pen.

“A monster,” she admitted.

“Really? What kind of a monster?”

“A friendly monster with fur and maybe horns because horns would be funny.”

“Would you have claws?”

“No claws… maybe paws like a puppy.”

“Perfect,” I said as I took the pen, put a giant X over the word “nurse” and wrote “MONSTER” beside it.

“But they said I couldn’t pick that. I had to pick something real.”

“Babe, for the rest of your life people are going to tell you that you aren’t who you think you are and you can’t be who you want to be. Don’t let them start now. Do you want to be a nurse or a monster?”

“A monster.”

“Then that’s what we’re going to make.”

Words cannot describe the look of relief she had – and the feeling of freedom I could sense emitting from this tiny precious little person.

She and I went to the store and got her project supplies- then we went home and had such fun making a poster board full of all of the answers to the questions.

We made a 3D monster head with horns and positioned it so that it was sticking off of the poster board. She wanted to make sure everyone saw the horns (which were silver with sparkles – stylish!), and that they knew she was going to be a friendly monster, which is why we went back to the craft store to buy googly eyeballs and pearl-white shimmery paint for the teeth. (We went all out.)

The point of all this is that in life sometimes we have to play by other people’s rules, but sometimes – if we have the guts – we can challenge them and it’s perfectly okay.

Follow your gut; oftentimes it’s so much smarter than your head.

Be authentic.

Have courage.

Know what you stand for, and then stand for it.

If you want to be a friendly monster with pearly white teeth, silver sparkly horns and humongous googley eyeballs, please do so.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t.

If you really want to do something and are afraid to “go there” then I’d love to coach you through it. Click this link to book a free session.