Why parents shouldn’t try to pick university courses or careers for their children
How hard should parents push their children when it comes to their future? Educationalists, teachers and psychologists say trying to decide your child’s career path can actually be damaging to their development and confidence
A friend recently spoke of her disappointment after her eldest son said he wanted to study environmental science. She would have liked him to go into law or medicine, she explained sadly.
“You know, something nice and respectable. Something useful,” she added.
My son, at 16, considered a career in education. Providing – of course – he didn’t make it as a professional cricketer; education being his contingency plan.
Where one might once have addressed a child, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”, perhaps – considering parental ambition – one ought to rephrase the question: “What does your mother want you to be when you grow up?”
Research shows that parents are more involved in their children’s university course choices now than they used to be. Additionally, as Hong Kong-based psychologist Scarlett Mattoli observes: “Different nationalities have different expectations for their offspring.”
Julianna Yau, director of Ampla Education, says Asian parents usually tend to favour “traditional professions, such as doctors, lawyers and engineers” for their children.