Family Life Messages About Work and Profession | Lifestyle

Family Life Messages About Work and Profession

It didn't matter to my mother, bless her heart, if I wanted to be a musician, I should be a teacher. If I wanted to be a teacher, I should be a dentist. If I wanted to be a doctor, I should be a lawyer. That's one way of encouraging your kid's I guess.

by GlennB.Miller

It didn't matter to my mom, bless her heart, if I wanted to be a artist, I should be a policeman. If I wanted to be a pastor, I should be a doctor. If I wanted to be a doctor, I should be a congressman. That's one way of encouraging your child's I guess.

My father on other hand had a simple, consistent message, "Its not work if you don't get your hands dirty." Those were the two sorts of messages I heard in my family. We tried to do it differently with our kids:

We've tried to be encouraging of our children no matter what their interest. When they wanted musical instruments, they not only got instruments, but lessons. When they were into baseball, we devoted Saturday mornings and sometimes afternoons to that sport. When snakes were in vogue, we had snakes in the house and went to "herp" shows. For that matter, various types of pets were constantly coming in and out of the house.

My wife and I send a similar message when it comes to the kid's careers. First off, we take the pressure off telling our kids that they are probably not going to graduate in their first college major let alone find a job in whatever they graduate in. Neither my wife or I ever worked in the field of our college majors.

To date we have only one graduated college child and she happens to have moved directly into her chosen field. Maybe precisely because we told her not to stress about it? Who knows? Our second kid, our eldest son, started out a psychology major, graduated with an English degree and then right away went back to school for music business.

Second, we tell them to follow their hearts rather than the looming dollar. Up till now that philosophy has us with one of our babies earning a very good living albeit contract to contract. Unlike many children who flounder for a period after getting out of school, she was already working in her field before graduation.

Now she intuits that waiting tables will probably be an inevitability from time to time in her field. We tell our kids that its all right to be an artist or whatever. Just don't count on living high off the hog in that case. We tell them they can be anything they want to be. But we also tell them there might be a price to pay.

Is our way of parenting better than my parents? Only time will tell I suppose. But so far, it all good. Our children seem totally satisfied when it comes to their career choices.

DISCLAIMER: This article is provided as information only and is not to be taken as financial advice.

Glenn B. Miller is the father of 4 beautiful children and is still working on his first marriage. Read more of his trials, tribulations, and success stories at My Family Life Blog. Go to the Ask Glenn page to the Ask Glenn page about your particular family life situations or maybe just to share one of your own stories.