Do you feel that your career has taken a path that you have walked along primarily to please others?
From my experiences working overseas in Asia, it appears that many parents try to encourage their children to become doctors or lawyers or accountants – what would be typically called “professionals”. This “guidance” may come from their own upbringing where they have perhaps seen people with those qualifications succeeding in life (probably mainly in terms of material things).
Whilst it’s possible that children would have acquiesced to following this path, I wonder how many felt they pursued a career that was truly what they desired. Which makes them probably wonder about how their life would have turned out if they had taken on a job they wanted and that is kind of sad really.
I do feel, these days, with many of these students being able to either study abroad and/or make online friends and see other potential career paths, how much conflict arises when a child decides to follow their own choice of further studies.
I was reminded of this when my daughter brought up seeing the salary that is paid to a train driver – quite higher than the average that most earn in the UK. I can remember my Dad saying that he wanted to be a train driver as a child and how horrified his parents were…
Are you putting your child off a career because you think they are going to fail, or not earn enough money to have a decent quality of life or even because you don’t want to have to admit that your child has chosen X career when the neighbour asks you about them.
A reminder to us as friends and parents ourselves not to knock someone for mentioning a career that they are interested in. We need to learn not to impose our perspective of life on those around us.
Look at the people who have made a lot of money from podcasting! Not forgetting the lucky few that get to travel in luxury accommodation on ships, trains and planes.
Use our community to share you’re sad that your son doesn’t want to follow in your footsteps or that your daughter doesn’t want to become a pilot like you. It’s what we are here for.
