To be sad neither of my kids are very ambitious

Joiner fine. Childcare apprentiship I would be iffy tbh unless she has a plan to do something else with it rather than work in daycare as notoriously low paid and long hours.

I sincerely hope you never make any remarks to this effect to your children.

When I was 25 I was a care-worker on £7.50 an hour, my mum told me “if I never done another thing in my life, she couldn’t be prouder of me”

I’m now 35 and I am a company director, with a 6 figure salary.

I still hold dearly in my heart that my mum told me she couldn’t be prouder of me when I was “just” a carer.

Honestly as-long as they are HEALTHY and HAPPY, you should be the happiest parent alive.

Oh and my BIL is in his 20s and did a joinery apprenticeship and has a really well paid job. Far better than many others I know. He worked his way up very quickly.

2 low incomes isn’t so bad, but again, not everyone is living in a couple, especially when they’re in their 20s. A single person paying rent, food, bills, will have next to fuck all left for an emergency on a low wage from something like childcare. When these adult kids live with parents, they’re laughed at.

Pretending life is fun on a low income is ridiculous and completely contradicts so many threads on mumsnet and what I see IRL.

I'm going to say something controversial but I don't think earning highly is that big of a deal.

My partner is a joiner, he works for the local council, I'm a classroom assistant but I did work in a nursery before I had my kids.

We have a relatively new car, we go on holiday most years, I get the kids nice clothes and we don't scrimp to get by (hello fresh, meals out, days out).

Yes we have a council house, yes we don't have a big stack of savings but we are happy we have everything we need and seem to live just as well as anyone else we know.

We are in S/W Scotland so it's very affordable to live here but yeah I wouldn't worry.

I did highers then a HNC and I'm no better or worse off than the early years practitioners who did apprenticeships!

They’re so young!

I had no idea what I wanted to do at 15…. I drifted about trying things out. Finally did a BA and an MA and now have a successful career in my 40s.

It sounds like a lot of pressure for a 15 year old having disappointed parents.

And as PP have said, childcare doesn't just mean working in a nursery for minimum wage. There are loads of careers you can "springboard" to that bring in a more "respectable" salary.

Of course you need to be able to support yourself but millions of people do just that every single day on the minimum wage. We don't all struggle and live in cold bedsits.

I think these days, I would worry if my kids went into a career that was heavily physical/manual. Because of the risk of retirement age getting even higher. I guess they would then need to think of alternative routes eg training, owning the business etc.

I was addressing the poster who was coming out with these soundbites ‘find something you love and you'll never work a day in your life’. That’s not good advice. It’s not always enough to do something you love. It needs to bring on money too for most of us unless you are independently wealthy.

You're acting as though choosing a low-paying career at sixteen is some kind of jail sentence that you're stuck with for life.

PP have already posted examples of childcare-related careers that have 40k salaries. Joiners are hardly low-paid either. Just because you start out on minimum wage in a nursery doesn't mean you're stuck like that forever.

And not everyone chooses to be a parent.

Of course the cost of living crisis is impacting lots of people but it really isn't impacting everyone. We've not had to give up anything or change anything about our lives at all despite our low incomes.

Yes, but if it comes to it they have some flexibility and capacity for change in their budget. If you’re earning minimum wage and are already living frugally, there’s nowhere to go.

I would say your son could earn well.working in joinery or carpentry. Childcare though is very low paid so I understand you wanting to steer your daughter away from this.

I am a teacher and love my job. However I regret not doing something where I could earn a lot more and enjoy my life outside of work more.

It's great if you love your job, but your life outside is important too and it's hard to be happy when you can't pay the bills.

How is it horrible? It’s the exact same as what she is saying about her children, but in reverse.

This comment is horrible. Ignore it OP.

of course it's not 'only' harder if you're a parent
You might have more time if you don't have kids (although you could have other commitments) but you'd still be an adult with presumably adult financial commitments that meant you couldn't just stop working and go back to school full time while expecting mum and dad to house, feed and support you as you would at 16-18/21.
Not many people can easily just give up work for a few years to go back to college, and then university, regardless of if they have kids or not.

If you don’t have a partner, it’s not easy living as a single person on minimum wage. Not everyone is in a couple.

I don’t know why the cost of living board and other boards are so busy and why theres anyone complaining about about living life on a low wage, if it’s so good. 🙄 It’s simply not!

I do get where you’re coming from and can tell that’s it’s coming from a place of love and concern, but perhaps they consider themselves to have had a happy childhood and want to follow a similar path in life to you and your husband?

I tell mine that I’ll support whatever they want to do as long as they can support themselves and are happy. I’m not sure if DS2 will go to university, even though he’s quite academic.

Having paid thousands to a joiner for cupboards i wouldn't be remotely worried about your DS

However, childcare is badly paid, with poor pensions and often long hours. Id only really recommend it for someone with their own home who can be self employed and work as a childminder.

Yanbu to provide her with plenty of balanced info about the relative pay in that career & what thats likely to mean in terms of affording housing as an adult etc, and to also provide information on similae careers with higher earning potential like primary school teaching. However you need to be clear its her choice. Your job as a parent is to make sure she is making an informed choice.

What was that Maureen Lipman advert, ‘people will always need plates Michael’. Yellow pages?

They won’t ever be out of work.

Their choice of apprenticeships aren’t that different to yours and your partners careers. You could have a future paediatric nurse on your hands with a father/son duo building an empire.

They are still young so might change their minds later on but these apprenticeships will always be there to fall back on if needed which I think is really sensible.

Oh I had no idea! Thanks for the info 🙂 every days a school day!

@bahck go start your own thread in a more suitable area of MN like the sex or relationship boards

Also many many people have families and don't earn the legendary 6 figure sum !

Not everyone lives in cold studio flats the op Dd can earn an average wage once she's qualified she won't be destitute .