When Your Child Wants to Be a First Responder

Hillary Ibarra reflects on the dangerous jobs that someone must do for the good of society. Will we support our children if they choose to do them?

My daughters graduated a week apart this spring, the oldest from college and the youngest from high school. I’m shocked I didn’t cry buckets that whole week — especially because my oldest moved out — but crazy work deadlines and a crazier family schedule kept me too busy and exhausted to ponder the changes, and I’m grateful.

As I watched my daughters walk during their commencements, I reflected on what I most admire about them. Though both are writers and nature-lovers as I am, God gave them additional gifts, far different from mine.

Those gifts have led my daughters to become first responders, vocations I have never felt any inclination to pursue and, frankly, don’t believe I could if I tried. I do not have what it takes. My daughters’ vocations are dangerous, demanding calm and courage and highly honed skills.

Trusting the Lord with Our First-Responder Children

From the time our children are babies, we pray for their safety. As we peer into their cribs at night. As they ride a bicycle for the first time. As they head to preschool or kindergarten. When things become complicated in middle school. When they learn to drive and start going out with friends. And when they leave for college.

Then they reach adulthood and choose a dangerous career. When this happens, can we recognize that God guided them to it? Do we trust our Heavenly Father with our children’s talents and well-being? Do we believe they will live a challenging but rich life, gaining a unique understanding of human experience?

I struggle with these questions. I and many of my fellow first-responder parents feel astounded by and afraid of the vocations our children have chosen. So, we turn again to prayer. We pray God guides and guards them. That He shows them what is right and best in every difficult moment. That their courage and confidence increases with every emergency call.

Through prayer we parents can choose to embrace and submit to our Heavenly Father’s perfect will for our children, resting in the knowledge that He gave them the talent, desire, and grit to be first responders.

The Challenging but Blessed Path to Being First Responders

A year ago, my eldest daughter graduated from the EMS Academy and began working as a paramedic. This year, she graduated with a Bachelor of Sciences in Emergency Medical Services and moved to full-time shifts with an ambulance service. Already, she has seen some frightening and terrible things, yet she feels an unwavering desire to help people in crisis. Thank God her good, supportive friends — most of whom are fellow paramedics or EMTs — understand what she faces during each call. I do my best to listen when the burden of her vocation is heavy.

She told me recently, “You get to be there for people at the most vulnerable times of their lives, and there’s just something that’s really personal and special about that. You get to be there for them in a way that other medical professionals don’t, in their homes and around their families. It’s new and different and sometimes sad, but very worth it.”

Many people have told me since she was a little girl that they appreciate her good heart, and I feel God gave her extraordinary compassion so she could help others as a paramedic. When she played soccer as a child, she stopped running whenever she knocked against an opposing player and cried, “I’m sorry! Are you okay?” Her face as she knelt by them expressed deep concern. One of her coaches, an OB-GYN, told her she would excel in the medical field because of her care for others.

And my youngest daughter strove toward a career in law enforcement while in high school. She got accepted to the FBI Junior Academy; received mentorship with the local sheriff’s office; went through a grueling, traumatizing, and life-changing week at the state police youth academy; and still took a brutal Police Service Aide class where law enforcement officers gave talks about horrible crimes they’ve investigated. On top of all this, she earned a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. She plans to study criminal justice at a college three hours from home — our first child to move away for college — before becoming a beat cop and someday, God willing, a U.S. Marshal.

I think my youngest daughter’s crime-fighting fascination began with Batman when she was a preschooler. She ran around in Batman pjs and dressed up as the Caped Crusader every Halloween for years. Perhaps even her interest in Jiu-Jitsu began while watching Adam West “POW!” and “SOCK” the villains in the 1960s Batman series.

I see that the path to my daughters’ vocations was paved a long time ago. They will see and experience heart-rending situations, but I believe God called them to this work. I cannot argue with Him. As my youngest daughter wrote in a scholarship essay,

Being a cop is supposed to be a hard job. I’ll see things humans weren’t built to see. When I walk into a situation I want people to feel my unwavering faith and the presence of God. This is my future of service to the Lord.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for our first responders!

Share your thoughts with the Catholic Mom community! You'll find the comment box below the author's bio and list of recommended articles.

Copyright 2026 Hillary Ibarra
Images: Canva