Career Playgrounds like KidZania are gaining much popularity with working parents. Some parents felt it could be a great way to start their kids’ career planning while others thought it would be just play-acting. Whatever it may be, it is still a great way to spend family bonding time if you have kids starting school in the new year as the holiday season ends.

Like a walk-through of life

After entering KidZania, these children are led towards the bank to open a bank account and exchange some cash for spending. From there, each kid was encouraged to search for their preferred “job” to kickstart their career. This mirrors our life after graduation where we seek our first job that starts earning ourselves a regular paycheck.

As the kids chugged through the various jobs, they will get themselves upgraded with new skill sets that will equip them for other roles in their career.  In reality, we need to continuously upgrade ourselves to stay competitive in our job so as to be relevant to the ever-evolving working environment.

It will come upon a time where these kids will get hungry and tired. They will then use their “hard-earned” money to buy food to eat and rest with their family. This resembled the ever so important family dates like Chinese New Year or Thanksgiving where we gather with family and friends to spend precious time together to catch up.

After spending hours role-playing, these kids would have earned enough money to exchange for items they want at the store. Much like adults who worked hard for their dream cars, houses and others.

Here’s something for you to ponder:

Is this Career Planning or is this just Play-Acting? Or is this just filling the gap that some of us felt we were younger and didn’t know better in terms of doing what we want as a career and simply decide to remain stuck in our comfort zone?