Adults are always asking children what they want to be when they grow up because they’re looking for ideas.

Paula Poundstone is an American stand-up comedian known for observational humor and improvisational crowd work. This line circulates widely as one of her one-liners about adulthood and the way adults talk to children. It plays on a familiar social ritual—asking kids what they want to be “when they grow up”—and flips the expected motive. Rather than treating the question as guidance for the child, the joke suggests adults ask it out of their own uncertainty and desire for inspiration, reflecting Poundstone’s broader comedic interest in everyday conversations, social scripts, and the anxieties that sit beneath them.

The joke hinges on reversal: a question framed as nurturing becomes a confession of adult insecurity. Poundstone implies that adulthood is not a settled state of purpose; many adults feel stuck, bored, or unsure, so they mine children’s unfiltered ambitions for fresh possibilities. The line also gently critiques how adults project their own concerns onto children, using kids’ futures as a safe arena to rehearse hopes and regrets. Beneath the humor is a reminder that “growing up” doesn’t automatically deliver clarity—and that imagination and reinvention, often associated with childhood, remain valuable resources for adults.