How much did you "push" your kids

mackinaw
Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:51:46 +0000

Another approach, with similaries to some others mentioned above.

Our goal was to give each child tools and opportunities to learn, not targeted on specific achievements or goals but instead on discovering and developing their interests and talents. We tried to make learning interesting by providing books, games, museums, travel, computers, sports, music lessons, you name it. But they themselves had to find out what they were interested in.

Turned out that #1 was a numbers fanatic from an early age, and #2 loved to draw. But they wouldn’t be successful in life if that’s all they did or they were programmed in specific directions. Neither was all right brained or all left brained. But they did, after all, eventually have to go to college and concentrate in something.

They both attended excellent schools for their interests. One ended up becoming a statistician-journalist (majored in economics in college; spent a year abroad; has made a name for himself). The other became a industrial/graphics designer who is developing an interesting career path; now getting an MBA degree with a focus on sustainable product development.

In my opinion, a lot of parents don’t fully consider that for most people a career isn’t a fixed set of steps up some organizational ladder (even for those who are in academia, as I am). Most kids graduate from college with a degree that allows them to choose from thousands of alternative types of work – but they’re only going to consider a narrow range of opportunities when they first go on the job market.

Still, their starting job isn’t necessarily closely related to what they will be doing 4 or 5 years down the road. This is partly due to their maturing interests or talents, partly to newly presented opportunities, but largely due to the rapidly changing economy, which creates both career dead ends and major new opportunities every day. Being able and willing to switch gears or retool and find new opportunities can be rewarding in terms of self-fulfillment.