Few children want to be president

JAKARTA (JP): If you need it, here is proof that children often are wise beyond their years: precious few of them want to be president.

The results of a recent survey were announced on Wednesday, showing that being president was the least preferred profession of children.

Of 2,500 children between the ages of seven and 12, 38.7 percent said they wanted to be doctors when they grew up, 9.3 percent wanted to be engineers and 8.5 percent hoped for careers in the police or the military, the managing director of Frontier marketing and research consultant company, Handi Irawan, said.

Among the other future career ambitions of the children were professional athlete (6.6 percent), professor/scientist (3.0 percent), singer (2.7 percent), flight attendant (2.2 percent) and architect (2.1 percent). And in a tie for least preferred profession was model/photomodel and president at a scant 0.4 percent.

Of course, it should come as no surprise that most children dream of one day strapping on a stethoscope. Doctors are often portrayed as sincere and kindhearted people desirous of relieving the suffering of others.

Though in real life, parents often must resort to pleading and threatening to make their children actually go see a doctor.

The survey was carried out simultaneously in Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya and Medan in April. The children interviewed came from middle to upper-class families.

"We used these economic backgrounds because their attitude patterns, habits and preferences are usually more heterogeneous," Handi said.

Called Kid's Market Survey 2001, the survey was undertaken to discover the lifestyles of children and determine their preferences when it came to different products and brands. The results of the survey will be presented during a gathering of businesspeople and psychologists scheduled to be held in Jakarta on May 19. (emf)