AIBU to try to steer my DS into a well paid career against his dreams

You have an old fashioned view of what are secure professions.

I’m a solicitor and the profession is about to go through unprecedented change due to AI. It’ll be smaller, more specialist / niche, and entry level positions will be few and far between. I’d be very surprised if the paralegals and secretaries that current provide us with support are around in 5 years time.

It might see out. In my area of law there may well be a continuing need for humans to provide tactical, strategic advice that AI currently struggles to provide. They might also be areas where people just prefer to deal with a human being. However, the days of there being loads of lawyers, all earning a packet, are numbered.

If you do want to steer him into something lucrative and secure, I suggest you do a lot more research.

As an aside, I instruct a few barristers who are former actors and changed careers.

My cousin has suffered for years with severe depression and anxiety due to the years he spent working in an academic field pushed onto him by his parents. He left the job before his 30th birthday. Had he stayed, I dread to think of what may have happened to him.

Don’t underestimate the damage you could do by trying to force this. Stop telling your son what you want out of his life when he’s the one who has to live it.

You are going to continue to do what you want as you cannot see the damage you will do to your DS. My advice - for him - is to follow his heart and his dreams and tell.you to fuck off.

Im asian and once you start looking on social media you cant help but see all of these ex high flyers changing careers into something creative later in life.

If I read the OP rightly this is one summer we are talking about, not the rest of his life.
He has diligently followed the academic route for 13 years and will no doubt continue to do so after this one summer, so where is the problem?
He will meet lots of interesting people, gain life experience, have some fun, broaden his outlook ... all good. He may find it is not what he hoped, or he may love it so much and make some good contacts so he feels that he might pursue it when he has finished his degree. Who knows? But in any event it is just one summer.
One summer in which to have a taster of a different life. Let him have this.

I totally get it!
perhaps suggest he auditions for drama school. If he makes it through great! If not, (and probably likely unless he is spectacularly talented) it might give him a sense of the competition and encourage him to lean into other talents.
Going to Edinburgh sounds an amazing experience though!
I would also say all the drama university grads i know have done brilliantly career wise. They are usually not in performing arts but have great people skills that take them far!

Of course he won't be. Stop overreacting

You want your son to get into Banking, Consultancy, or Law?

In an economy which is about to be decimated by the mass roll out of A.I.?

If he follows your guidance, he will be unemployed and broke by the time he's 30.

Do you know how lucky you are to have a son with a passion and the gumption to do something to make it happen? So many young men these days basically don’t do anything except play video games.

Raise your concerns with him regards how to earn a living. But let him chose.
I am in exactly the same boat as you. And I am a ball of nerves at present, but it is their life. They get to build it and fight for it. We just make sure they know how hard that path is going to be. If they still want to go ahead, then let them go for it.

There's someone for every job, my DD is desperate to do law so she will happily take the place of OP's son while he acts 🤣

You should and honest and frank discussion about careers and earnings

It never goes well trying to force others to do things your way, it will only lead to resentment, let him find his own path. Its not like he'd be alone as a failed actor! There's also plenty of failed, poor and miserable lawyers. Every way has the potential to be great or bad.

I agree. I think a good work life balance is underestimated by people who are so money focussed that they can't think of any other way to live.

DD has ME/CFS, so it has shaped her career choices. Her post grad degree will (hopefully) lead her into a solid job that will allow her to have a decent work life balance. She won't be rich, but she won't be on the breadline either.

I'd want my child to earn a reasonable living and be able to support themselves

But there's more to life than big houses, ski holidays and swimming pools. My cousin earns well, but hates her job and always has. It's no way to live

I’m genuinely glad this approach worked for you. My friend, on the other hand, was made by his parents, to study law. He absolutely loathed it and despite being very clever ended up with a third, which meant he wasn’t eligible for any of the graduate jobs he applied for in his chosen career of advertising. It took him about a decade to catch up with his peers because of his degree class

I’ve read all your posts. You sound like a great Dad. I’d have done the same thing about the summer job - I want my (frankly very privileged children) to understand about work but also thinks it’s important to give your dreams a good crack! If it doesn’t work out he’ll have had invaluable experiences including the experience of working things out for himself! Nothing more useful in life

There is a middle way. DH and I are comfortable, mortgage free, have several investments and don't have to worry about unexpected big bills, but we didn't both have to work 70 hour weeks in jobs we hated in order to do this.

I would be so proud if my daughter wanted to take a play she directed to the Fringe at that age. What an achievement honestly! I would definitely let him have that life experience and then look for a job after that, in the arts or something else. There are plenty of arts careers paths that pay well too.

Finance, banking, law are the 'typing pools' of this generation. AI has come for them.

Support him to do the theatre, teach him how to budget and discuss portfolio careers with him.

Yeah you lost me at prioritising his income over his happiness, I’m afraid.
Its his life,let him live it.

YABU. My best friend is like your son. Her parents did the same. If hasn’t gone well. Don’t do that to him - he’s young, he’ll be in work for 50+ years.

This thread is interesting, but has both extremes. Not everyone hates their job. The trick is to try and find something you do like that pays at least a reasonable wage.