<p>Younghoss, you are exactly right, and you are not. Also, I suspect, that the truth of the OP’s situation is somewhat different than “his side of the story”, which was posted.
The one thing that I did not completely agree with Newmassdad about, is not allowing parents to see which courses are taken. The original poster has to A) Live with his parents, and B) listen respectfully to their advice.
What he does not have to do is to take their advice, completely as it was portrayed. First of all, most parents genuinely want to advise their college age children, not run their lives, BUT, that advice is often construed by the 18 year old as “telling me what to major in”. If you read carefully what I said, some of the finance/money courses are probably a good idea for him to take - he should take those and emphasize those courses to his parents.
It is pretty unrealistic, and pretty stupid, to say this is what I’m going to do, you (parents) choose to not fund my education if you wish. OP probably can’t fund his education on his own, his parents probably don’t want him to fund his education on his own, they are concerned he will have a job when he gets out. I’d be a little concerned as well, if my child wanted to do international relations and had trouble grasping economics, because trade underpins international relations.
Getting his parents to understand his career goals, and buy into them is an ongoping process, and he has to live with his parents while he goes through the process, so that means give a little here, preserve your autonomy over there.</p>
<p>OP might go a long way toward winning his parents over, by visiting the career center, taking some aptitude tests, etc. Poli sci may well be his thing, but if he is “numbers challenged”, he might want to look at foreign languages, campaigning/marketing, some other aspect of poli sci that is further from econ. If he comes to them with a plan for adapted to his identified strengths, they may still suggest he take some econ/finance classes (often it is those “hard to grasp” classes that do us the most good), but I bet they will bless his ultimate major.</p>