"First, let's define career-related terms," I suggest to Odessa. We examine the meaning of career, work, and career development. According to the National Career Development Association:

Career is the totality of work, paid and unpaid one does in his or her lifetime

Work is sustained, conscious paid and/or unpaid effort, other than that having as its primary purpose wither coping or relaxation, aimed at producing sociatally acceptable benefits for oneself and/or for oneself and others

Career development is the total constellation of psychological, sociological, educational, physical, economic, and chance factors that combine to influence the nature and significance of work in the total lifespan of any given individual ^{note 2}

I refer Odessa to my recent article, "Life After High School." I wrote:

The traditional meaning of career is no longer helpful. Long-term careers with one company or organization are no longer the norm. Young adults jump from job to job every few years. They are hired by the project, rather than by the job. We can help our children formulate their future from a lifework perspective, rather than from a career perspective^{note 3}.

I continue, "Let's start with where your children are now. What do they like to do? Do they have a favorite sport, hobby, TV show? What are their passions?"

I reflect upon my own children's introduction to literature. When he was a pre-teen, my son Eli didn't really like to read. On the other hand, he loved collecting baseball cards. He would pour over baseball catalogues. For a while he collected science fiction comic books. As proprietor of a retail store, and later as a full-time graduate student and administrator, I was working all the time. I didn't spend time cultivating my son's taste in literature.

Then I recall Eli's earlier years. We had moved to Maui. Eli was about to enter Kindergarten. Arianne was a toddler. I discovered Caedmon's literature audiotapes for children. Caedmon is now a subsidiary of Harper Collins Publishing Company (http://www.harperchildrens.com/hch/). In conjunction with reading the stories to my children, I played the audiotapes, usually read by a famous movie star or the author. The children were entranced with the combination of visual (book) and auditory (tape).

I brought books on audiotapes for car and plane trips to entertain the children. At home, they watched movies or videotapes based on children's literature. The Canadian public television Anne of Avonlea series stimulated Arianne's interest in reading the book series when she was a pre-teen.

"But we have no television in our Tahoe cabin," Odessa reminds me, "Anyway, what does children's literature have to do with career books?" I respond, "According to the NCDA definition of career development, your children are influenced by what they learn from their parents, their friends, the community, the media, and other environmental, economic, and chance factors. In fact, Mark Savickas, a leading proponent of narrative career theory says that one's earliest memories are the basis of his or her lifework."^{note 4}

We view the NCDA website on our computers as we talk on the phone. "Realizing that home and school are so influential on children's career development," I continue, "NCDA encourages families to start presenting good work values to pre-school children in the home, and for parents to form alliances with schools to help children develop the following career competencies in grades K-6."