NSPCC campaign – Alfie the Astronaut – Mummascribbles

If like me you were watching Educating Cardiff tonight, you may have seen the first airing of the new NSPCC advert. If you didn’t, don’t despair…just make it to the end of this post and you can see it

The NSPCC’s latest TV and digital campaign isn’t the usual hard hitting imagery that we often see from not only these but many other charities. At the heart of the campaign is a boy called Alfie who dreams about becoming an astronaut. We watch Alfie training at space camp as he tells us how the NSPCC helped him and his mum recover from domestic violence. At the end of the film we see Alfie back in the real world, safe and happy, protected from future abuse.

NSPCC Chief Executive Peter Wanless said: “Every child is born with hopes for the future but if a child’s head is full of fear, anxiety or loneliness there’s no space for dreams. Childhood should be a time when we’re free to dream. Abuse can destroy that – but it never should.”

I wrote this post at the beginning of the year whilst I was wondering what Zach would be when he grows up, and it turned into me talking about what I wanted to be when I was younger. It’s fair to say that whilst I haven’t been unsuccessful in my career, I didn’t achieve my dreams.

An NSPCC survey has revealed that one in seven adults in the UK has managed to achieve the job they dreamed about when they were children, including one who said they became an astronaut. How cool is that?!

The survey which was conducted by YouGov, found that the most popular childhood dream job – for one in ten adults in the UK – was to be a doctor or nurse, followed by footballer (9%), and teacher (7%).[1]

And nearly, a third of adults who wanted to be a medic achieved their childhood ambition. Others who got their dream job included teachers (27%), writers or journalists (9%), police officers (6%), and actors (5%).

There were some unusual childhood dream jobs, including eleven archaeologists, ten farmers, seven artists, six chefs, and four jockeys. And despite being barely out of the starting blocks of life two people said they had dreamed of becoming funeral directors when they were children.

Among the one-off dream jobs were antique dealer, bus conductor, chip shop owner, dog trainer, hovercraft captain, gamekeeper, magician, opera singer, spy, and shepherdess.

It’s funny because I have thought before about whether jobs such as funeral directors would diminish over time because it just doesn’t seem to be the kind of career you’d dream of having, but for some people out there, it simply is.

Of course it’s not all bells and whistles and like me, not everyone is lucky enough to have paved out their dream career. Sadly, most adults surveyed (86%) didn’t ever achieve their childhood dream and more than one in four (28%) said it was because they thought their ambition was unrealistic. A lack of encouragement or approval from parents were also reasons given for why people gave up on their dreams.

The future however, does appear to be bright for many of today’s young people with two thirds of under-18s surveyed by ChildLine saying that they are confident about getting their dream job.[2]. Most children said achieving their goal would be down to their own hard work and good grades, but support from family and friends came a close second.

So, what do we think the dream jobs of children are now? I bet you can guess a few before you even read the list! Of course a pop star and footballer are in there but there are some highly important jobs that are still highly regarded by our children. It’s so important as parents that we get behind our children and support them in whatever they want to do and it’s so important that charities like the NSPCC are there to give support to the children who are less fortunate to have that support at home.

So here we go, the top ten childhood dream jobs were:

1. Doctor, nurse or other health professional (10%) 2. Footballer (9%) 3. Teacher (7%) 4. Writer/journalist (5%) 5. Police officer (4%) 6. Train driver (4%) 7. Actor (3%) 8. Zoo keeper (3%) 9. Pop star (3%)

10. Astronaut (2%)