Why Parents Should Not Choose Their Child’s Career

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Parents who choose their child’s career are doing them no favors and only hurt them in the long run, hindering their ability to make choices of their own and taking away important life lessons that they can learn from experience in the working world. Parents should not choose their child’s careers. There are many reasons why parents shouldn’t choose their child’s career, including but not limited to these examples below. Here are the reasons why you should not choose your child’s career!

People Need To Choose Their Own Careers

Research has shown that parents’ career preferences often trump their children’s interests and values. Parents have a strong influence on what they think is best for their kids—more so than any other influence. Even when a kid ends up going in another direction, it’s common for an adult to say I could never have done that. My parents always wanted me to _. If you want your kids to thrive in life, let them choose their own careers.

Parental Influence Only Lasts Until They’re 18

Many parents take it upon themselves to decide what career their children will pursue. This is a poor decision because we now know that parental influence only lasts until they’re 18. That’s when they move out of their parent’s home and on to college, where they must make their own decisions.

Studies show that after the age of 18, parental influence decreases in importance for most people. It’s better for parents to let their kids explore different options before making any commitments to one specific profession. Kids should be allowed to explore without any pressure from their parents.

Parental Expectations Can Skew A Child’s Potential

Many parents seem to have it in their minds that their children should take over their careers, but kids shouldn’t be made to follow in their parent’s footsteps. That is because a parent’s expectations can often skew a child’s potential talents and abilities—and if your parents didn’t have what it takes to make it in a certain industry, then they shouldn’t expect you to get there either.

They may find out later in life that the career they had been forced into was not right for them at all.

Instead of having their parent’s dream shoved down their throat, they should try to learn about what interests them so that they will be able to pick out something themselves without feeling pressured by family members or friends.

Give Them Time To Discover Their True Calling

If you choose your child’s profession, there’s a very rare chance they will never enjoy their job.

While it’s important to introduce your child to his or her options and give them some level of guidance, if you decide for them, you could be setting them up for failure.

Allow your child to be an individual and pursue their own interests; don’t force them into a future they will hate simply because it sounds good on paper.

Final Thoughts

As I indicated before, I’m not saying that parents shouldn’t guide their kids, but they shouldn’t force them into a certain career. A parent forcing their kid to be a doctor or lawyer is kind of like suffocating them in my opinion. It may work out, but more likely than not it will put too much pressure on your child and they will end up hating what they are doing.