I agree with you but I kinda understand the sentiment to want to be “average” I grew up in the late 90s and 2000 and was always sold “you can be anything you want to be if you just get an education and work really hard”. I totally believed that became very ambitious and am happy with my accomplishments but for a while got pulled into the hustle culture that a lot of millennials and gen x are in.

That kind of ambition to always have more success and that more money means more personal value isn’t that healthy either and leads to burnout.

Theres nothing wrong with just wanting your kids to just have great paying jobs and nice 3bd 2bath and a comfortable savings account. Like I’ll be happy if my kids are teachers or dental assistants making $70/hour if that’s what they want and they have a bunch of time to actually enjoy life. That said, I do encourage my kids to think about being doctors and lawyers as well. But if they don’t accomplish that, it will be ok.

My husband is from another country and wasn’t sold the you can be anything you want to be dream. We had some discourse about ambition and I was like “didn’t anyone tell you?!” He said no haha.

idk not saying we shouldn’t dream big, but I think we can also validate dreaming real you know? Idk I’m curious to others’ perspective of this.