Job and Profession Family Life Messages | Lifestyle

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

by GlennB.Miller

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 doctor. If I wanted to be a veterinarian, I should be a lawyer. That's one way of encouraging your child's I guess.

My dad 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. My wife and I tried to do it differently with our kids:

We've tried to be encouraging of our kids 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. I don't think there is a pet we didn't have at some point in time.

So why should it be any different when it comes to the children's careers? First of all, we encourage them that they are unlikely to graduate in their first college major let alone find a job in whatever they graduate in. Neither of us ever worked in the field of our college degrees.

Up until now we have only one post college child and she happens to have gone straight into her chosen field. Maybe exactly because we told her not to stress about it? I don't know, but maybe. Our second child, our eldest son, started out a psychology major, graduated with an English degree and then promptly went back to school for a music business degree.

One other thing we tell them is to follow their passions instead of chasing after the looming dollar. So far doing so has us with one child earning a great living although her work is contract to contract. Unlike many kids who pause for a period after getting out of school, she was already was working jobs in her field before graduating.

She intuits that waitressing will be an inevitability from time to time in her field. We try to tell our children that its all right to be an artist or whatever. But don't on living luxuriously in that case. We tell them they can do anything they want to do. But we also tell them there might be consequences.

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 dad to 4 beautiful kids and has been married over twenty five years. To find out more about his trials, tribulations, and success stories at Family Life. 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.