If you’re interested in working with children, helping to shape young minds, as it were, then the first profession that might come to mind is teaching. But if you’re not a terribly academic sort yourself, you don’t enjoy the restrictions of a classroom setting and a school board that mandates a cookie-cutter curriculum, or you simply don’t have the patience to spend your evenings and weekends creating lesson plans and grading papers, then becoming an educator might not be what you had in mind in terms of a career. As it happens, though, there are plenty of professional paths that allow you to have a hand in molding children into capable and confident adults. Here are just a few that could allow you to participate in the process of helping the youth of today become the leaders of tomorrow.

1. Daycare. Whether you decide to become a full-time nanny, you offer babysitting services for neighborhood parents, or you open your own daycare facility, providing supervision and care to young children is a great way to work with kids without the onus of having to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. Instead you can get kids outside, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine, you can have fun with arts and crafts, or even have story time that allows them to explore the imaginary worlds offered by literature. This is a great way to help create well-rounded children and have a job that’s full of fun and surprises.
2. Tutoring. Just because you don’t want to spend all day in a classroom doesn’t mean you can’t provide kids with the one-on-one assistance they need to master their studies. In some cases, tutors can be even more helpful than teachers, who must deal with a class full of rowdy students and a curriculum to slog through that includes several subject. As a tutor you can offer targeted services that help children to work through the academic issues that are holding them back, helping them to move forward in the classroom setting.
3. Pediatrics. There’s almost no higher calling when it comes to children than a profession that keeps them healthy and fit. As a pediatrician you can not only provide kids with preventive care through regular checkups and immunizations, diagnose and treat their ills, and keep them on track for healthy growth and development, but you can also offer parents advice on nutrition, fitness, and any other areas of childhood healthcare issues that they might need help with.
4. Child psychology. Adults aren’t the only ones that suffer from depression, anxiety, and a host of other mental and emotional disorders. Children can also face these issues. Only they don’t have the power to deal with them or seek help; they have to rely on the adults around them. As a child psychologist you can offer that helping hand and get kids to a healthy emotional and mental state.
5. Coach. If your fondest memories from childhood revolve around summer days spent engaging in sports in the play yard, then perhaps coaching youth soccer, softball, or football leagues is the best career you can think of. In your position of authority you can help kids to develop not only strength, agility, and motor skills, but also confidence in themselves and their abilities, as well as a strong sense of community (thanks to a team mentality) and communication. The classroom delivers an academic education; you can offer a social one that includes the benefit of physical fitness.