Should you choose a career for your child?

[Setho]

We are not going to deny the fact that there are some careers that if people are going to follow based on the perception by the society it is going to make them to be able to get a job faster and as such make a living. For example people who are in the medical line of profession like medical doctors and nurses are known to be in high demand and they pay very well.
Of recently we have also seeing a lot of people who have tried to push their children to learn software programming because that is where the new money is .

On a general a basic degree awesome formal qualification in that particular field is going to make you to be competent but then there is an overall role that passion plays in the life of something that you are going to be doing almost on a daily basis . There are also children that are always carried away by emotions and based on what they see their role models doing and as such they are not really trying to explore exactly the things that they can do. So do you think that it is right for parents to choose professions for their children ?.

 

[Rachael]

Definitely not, choosing a career for your child is not the best thing to do. It means you are ridiculing your child by implying that he or she cannot make the right decision or have a good thinking faculty. Choosing a career for a child is rampant in my country and practiced by many parents in Africa. They tend to look down on some career choices while rating others as prominent. In most cases, career choices like; photography, dancer, musicians, video vixen, singer, teacher, footballer. They tend to perceive that professions like; law, medicine and surgery, gynecologist. Fortunately, the table is turning around, those career that were diminished is now taking over. A footballer is now a prominent career, which brings the whole world together and people would not mind paying whatever it takes to watch or see a match being played. Most children who are forced, threatened or cajoled into studying a particular profession, later become disinterested and ultimately find it difficult to have a bearing in their life. Some of them even become dropouts because they find it hard to find passion and discovering their purpose is almost blindfolded. It is very wrong for parents to choose career for their children, just because you are paying the fees. Allow a child explore his potentialities so he can be creative and a thinking being.

 

[funmi]

I have heard so many parents of even this 21st century coming out to say what they want their children to become and trying by all means to force their ideas on their children without even taking time to look deeply at what the child actually wants and where the child will naturally fit in. As an educationists I have had encounter with a lot of children and parents aswel. There was this particular student of mine that came to me for some tutelage so as I began to speak with this particular boy I immediately saw his potentials in studying law or anything related to art, but his parents was clamoring for him to study medicine. So I later had a chat with the mother of this boy, and the mother was proving a point and she said she wanted him to study medicine because she thinks with that he can secure a good job after the completion of his career. So I tried to enlighten the mother about what it means to force a child into a field the child doesn't really want for himself or is not really good at. She was happy and she also changed her perception too.

 

[Kingsley]

Well I have made up my mind not to do what my parents did to me to my own children, as I have made up my mind not to choose a career for my children I will only guide them through what I see them developing interest in right now. I have learnt from experience that it is not the best to always make choices for your children mostly as it touches there career path as this is what they will do for the rest of their lives so it is always best to be patient and listen to your children and time your time to observe them. When you observe them closely you will see what they want to do and how they want to do it. With my little time I have spent to observe them I have seen that they are so inquisitive and they love sciences so I am willing to give them the time and chance to follow through in picking whatever career paths they so wish to do. I notice that they also like sports aswel so I am planning to enrol them for a weekend practice where they can develop those skills. Parents should be supportive.

 

[Augusta]

I don't think parents should do such. Allow the child choose whatever she or he have passion that's where they will effortlessly achieve their desires in life. The good thing now is that one can succeed at anything now provided you put your mind at it. A lot of skills that were seen as menial jobs years back are now practice as professional jobs.

Even they are some graduate nannies, housekeepers, cleaners etc now. This depends now on the packaging. it's no longer jobs for the illiterates. This is to say that jobs now that we're once seembfor the poor has been upgraded.

So in essence allow your child to choose the jobs they want to do and just be supportive that they can succeed at it. The society is now looking more at the money you can make not necessarily about what you doing to make the money. The thing is just to be engaged legally.