<p>I dream that they be ethical human beings who bring something positive to the world and earn a comfortable living while they are at it.</p>
<p>As to the question of jobs, well ds discovered programming at age 7 - I remember him using visual basic to make an animation of a rocket going around the moon - from that point on it was pretty clear what he’d be doing when he grew up. He’s working at Google now.</p>
<p>Younger son was more of a dreamer. Very empathic and observant around people. He’s studying International Relations and Arabic. I imagine him as a peacemaker of some sort.</p>
<p>Hmmmm. I want them to be happy and out of the house. Lol</p>
<p>I have always imagined my older child as a foreign area expert of some type. She has always seen the big picture on things even as a young girl.</p>
<p>For my son, it is anybody’s guess. He is very happy-go-lucky and I think he will be a natural in business. He starts college in the fall. He likes money better than the older one.</p>
<p>My eldest son just completed his junior year in college as a Geophysics major and my aspiration for him would be to develop a way to accurately and reliably to predict earthquakes which could save numerous lives. My younger son just finished his freshman year as a Physics major. My hope is that some day he develops a workable theory of Quantum Gravity that will unify the four forces of Nature.</p>
<p>The kids in my family have incredibly different interests.</p>
<p>Oldest just graduated from the business school at UMD with a degree in finance and is now working as a financial analyst in DC. His main goal is to make a lot of money and he’s well on his way with an impressive starting salary.</p>
<p>Middle is a junior at a tiny art school in Philly, though she will graduate with a BFA from UPenn. When she was in middle school, she said that she wanted to be a “starving artist” when she grew up. She seems to have no interest in money right now, but is planning on getting a nursing degree because she knows it’s not viable to make a career out of art.</p>
<p>Youngest is going to be a freshman majoring in math and computer science and has no idea what she wants to do besides staying in STEM and hopefully getting a PhD one day. She also wants to help the world somehow, but has no idea how to do that with math and comp. sci. </p>
<p>Not really sure how the kids all turned out so different, but I guess it’s a good thing to have diverse interests!</p>
<p>Happy, healthy and self supporting. They can do what they like. I have no vested interest in their choosing a “high paid career,” part of why H and I worked so hard is precisely so they have choices. S is very interested in politics/govt/IR so I certainly hope he gets to fulfill that; D is undecided but more math/science/economics oriented. </p>
<p>My nephew is at Princeton and doing some private equity summer internship and is the classic head-straight-to-WS and make-a-mint type. Good for him - the world needs all types. Just don’t particularly see that as a better or worse path.</p>
<p>My niece is considering anthropology as a major and going into Peace Corp after graduation. My sister just posted on FB that her D got her first paycheck after working 40 hours. When my niece saw the net amount, she said that it wasn’t enough to buy one Jimmy Choo shoe (not a pair). My sister said one of her aspirations needs to go. I guess it depends what will make her happier and what’s her passion.</p>
<p>Like many previous posters, I want my kids to find careers that are fulfilling, but I also agree with this.</p>
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<p>They might have to prioritize the money aspect of a career in order to enjoy all the above. So I do want them to think about the balance between career passion and career payoff.</p>
<p>I would just say to not get too invested in career dreams for your kids because chances are it isn’t going to turn out the way you dreamed! Might be better, might be not so good, but it’s just so hard to predict.
My daughter is an Episcopal priest. I would never have predicted or dreamed that, but I’m proud of her. Now I want her to be a Bishop!
The other kid I saw as a lawyer, and I think it would have happened if the legal profession hadn’t taken such a hit this past decade. He’s starting a business career and wants to make lots of money. He owes me big time, so go for it!</p>
<p>The ‘make a lot of money’ part… If this is the case we’d all be plumbers by now. The ‘do what you love’ part… I love photography but need to be cognizant of the fact that I can’t make money out of it - I am not that good.</p>
<p>I had to go thru the same decisions in Elbonia, circa 1980:</p>
<p>My two loves as a teenager were photography and model airplanes. So, I was a natural for aerospace engineering abroad (Elbonia did not offer it as a major). Employment possibilities were excellent as we were just starting our own national aerospace company that was very well funded.</p>
<p>Right in the middle of the Cold War, literally and figuratively, I knew that both sides had to know it was all a joke, especially from the West. Living close to the Iron Curtain (but not a part of it) we knew that the 70s and 80s unlimited money towards defense would not continue, and when that happened, all the storied aerospace companies in the world would shrink.</p>
<p>My theory was validated in the late 80’s when my roommate who did study aerospace engineering at a US school took a position as a paint factory manager upon return to Elbonia. I wisely chose not the defense or aerospace sector to work in the US upon graduation for the same reason, and nearly all my classmates who got jobs in the 80’s were laid off by decade’s end (the peace dividend and all that).</p>
<p>If you have to make a detour, finish what you started. I spent my undergrad youth in Elbonia studying Civil Engineering but by then a new love - computers - had gotten into my head. I built a single house and packed my shingle, never to be used again.</p>
<p>Bottom line. Pursue your dreams but hold the Reality Fairy’s hand firmly and do not let her sweet talk you into a hole just because “it looked like a good idea at the time”.</p>
<p>My dream is that D won’t be a loser or marry a loser. She tells me she’s going to be a winner. She also told me yesterday the #1 quality she looks for in a guy is that he’s going somewhere in life. What this all means specifically is yet to be seen. She’s only 21.</p>
<p>^^We could have a whole other thread on our children’s choices in life partners, couldn’t we? And then one about how they are raising OUR grandkids. :)</p>
<p>I thought my son would stick with CS and end up on opposite coast from me. Instead, he went the Ph.D route to understand NS/learNing. Then the recent 'ah-ha" moment; so few academic jobs out there, can he and his g/f handle living apart. </p>
<p>Should I have steered him away from phd? If he had not gone to that school, he wouldn’t have met this incredible gal. Honestly, I feel for our young ins.</p>
<p>I would just add that with daughters, the subject of how to combine work and kids comes up a lot, but not with my son.</p>
<p>Parenting children is still a high priority and I am hoping the workplace continues to evolve so that it is easier- for everyone - to make sure children are well taken care of if and when parents work.</p>
<p>However, I think that my daughters (and not my son) expect some limitations on career if they have kids. Perhaps rightly so, perhaps not: depends on how things change.</p>
<p>With all these career dreams, has this subject come up for others?</p>
<p>Find your passion. Determine if your passion has a high likely hood of providing a self supporting life on the level you are accustomed too/or would like to become accustomed too. If so, follow that course of study…if not…make a conscious decision when picking your path. Case and point…DD loves horses, loves working with them, loves riding, loves being around them. “Doing” horses can be very expensive. DD has picked a more traditional pre professional path of study with good job prospects. Figures she can make a very good living while working a humane number of hours and thus not only support her passion but give her time to pursue it.</p>
<p>DS…loves physics, sciences, math…has a summer internship which has helped him determine certain preferences in work style. Will pursue a degree in this general area with the intention of grad school. </p>
<p>In short, I hope they find what feeds their souls, what makes them content what puts a smile on their faces. If your day to day $$ generating activity happens to bring that all together then recognize your blessings. If there is a disconnect, figure out how to support your current and possible future passions. As for our part…they will graduate debt free, and, if they manage their UG in a financially responsible manner…we will fund grad school</p>
<p>@compmom, it hasn’t come up yet with my kids but I have had a few interns at work who are just out of college. Several of them have mentioned that there seems to be a trend toward getting married young again…which I suppose might mean starting families earlier, too. I actually think this could be a good thing for women, especially, who want to balance career and family–the way it is now, a lot of women get off the career track in their 30s to start families, right when their careers would otherwise be picking up steam. I heard something on NPR about fertility options for older women and thought this was an interesting statement:</p>
<p>"What are we creating as a world? We’re creating as a world one in which it’s increasingly hard for people to have children when they’re young, and then saying, ‘But wait, we have solutions, technology — we can do it when you’re older,’ " said Barbara Katz Rothman, a sociologist at the City University of New York. “And that’s the part that disturbs me.”</p>
<p>She argues that society should instead make it easier for women to balance school, work and parenting when they’re younger.</p>
<p>When I clicked on this thread, I was thinking, “Gee, I wonder how many self-righteous people will respond by telling the OP that it is not her life and that she is out of line…” </p>
<p>My children, of course, will make their own choices, but my dreams are to have 2 doctors. My oldest has graduated from college (did not become a doctor) and lives in NYC and has a great job. She is very happy and I am very proud </p>
<p>I am also with the other poster who said that the real dream would be to get a cut of whatever my kids do, lol. Time to wake up now… :)</p>
<p>@Compmom- while the subject actually hasn’t come up I often worry about my daughters and how they will one day have to juggle kids and work. I have a job that was accomodating in many ways- but most people don’t. It’s terrible that this is still a problem for women today.</p>
