Parents with adult children, did they become what you predicted? (Lighthearted)

[metronome1]

Hi all,

Me and dh were talking about what our girls might do as a career when they become adults. They are only 5 years and 1 year old.
We often attribute jobs to their little personalities for fun.
My eldest constantly has a pen and paper in her hand. She has never played with actual toys. She spends her whole day writing and drawing on all kinds of paper. Little scraps, anything she can find. She is an average drawer so we think writer or journalist (hopefully a good one not a daily fail one).
My other one hoovers up food like there is no tomorrow and spends her days in the kitchen waiting for her next meal or a snack so we think chef.
What were your children into when they were little and did it inform their career?

No... my brilliant daughter is a sahm
My son who I’d hoped for greater things is in a poorly paid job and is capable of doing better.

Love them loads and I’m so proud of them and we are all very close
I wouldn’t have them any other way
They and their families are my life... as well as husband number two

Everyone I know whose parents had fixed ideas about what they would become either dropped out or (and) suffers with MH difficulties. Don't even do it for fun.

My grown up kids have not had the sort of careers that I expected. Neither went on to formal post school education, though both were top stream kids at secondary school, and I had expected Uni . Uni did not attract.

They are temperamentally much as they seemed likely to be when they were children.

Nope - mine are only 18 and 22, but the fields they’re studying in aren’t areas I even considered, just totally out of left field things and neither took the route I’d have predicted when they were younger either.

I thought my DS25 would end up being a mechanic or a brickie, and would just be happy tootling along , he has however made me incredibly proud as he runs his own steel fabricating business employs a couple of people and is very ambitious.

My DC are little but I just asked my mum.
Dsis 1 is a doctor as they guessed: she played doctors and science games all the time when we were little!
Dsis 2 they guessed something very precsise and very competitive: she is a doctor as well.
She has just been quite tactful about me 😂 'Something creative and sociable': think she means I spent more time going out than studying (as well as lacking a talent in anything scientific)! I ended up doing a literature PhD and becoming a teacher. I still go out a lot and am no-where near as driven as my sisters.

Bestseller honestly don't worry. I'm pretty sure at 1 and 5 my kids won't be damaged by me and oh casually saying 'little chef' etc. Not everything is that serious in life.

DC1 (oldest of 5): theme park rides etc. he was always fixated on the mechanisms and how things fitted together rather than enjoying the view or the "thrill" . We thought he'd go into engineering. He is an aircraft engineer!

DC2 - very academic and good at everything (except music!) - thought academia... she's now post doc in Cambridge.

No idea about the other 3 though!

All I was concerned about was that they didn’t go into teaching. They didn’t. One went to uni and one didn’t. I didn’t really expect either to do that.

FoxyLoxy At my DD's PGCE interview they asked her if anyone had ever tried to put her off teaching. 'My mother' she said, 'on a daily basis.'
She still did it though.

I always said dd1 would do something sciency where she could sit in a room by herself and not talk to anyone. She's currently doing a computer science degree, but has grown more sociable than we would have predicted.

Dd2 is still only 8 but I think she will do something where she can problem solve on her own, not talking to people much either. She thinks she's going to be a childminder, she's got a plan which involves her best friend as well.

Mine are early 30s. I don't think I had any ideas or predictions of what they might do. I hoped they'd be gentle and kind, and I hoped they'd be happy. They are all of those things - we are incredibly fortunate.

Oh bless, we are so lucky to have interesting kids, aren't we?
I thought mine would do something in the performing arts area and so he has, very successful and I'm well proud.

Silvercatowner, yes, gentle, kind and happy is what I wanted for mine too.

My eldest decided at 4 that she was going to be a doctor. And she is!
DS1 had no idea but loved music, and is a low paid but happy special needs TA who plays gigs in his spare time and writes his own stuff.
DD2 I thought might be a writer, but she is a children's hospice nurse. However she blogs and was student editor of the Nursing Times while at uni, she is a compulsive writer and I hope one day gets to do more.
DS2 has autism and LDs and mild physical disabilities and we just hoped e would talk one day. He never shuts up, and everything he achieves is a bonus.
Most of all they are a happy loving bunch who all adore each other and are decent caring people. They are all I could have hoped for :)

No, absolutely not. Ds1 was unbearably difficult and was almost expelled from reception. We really struggled with him and I was frantically worried that he'd end up with a conduct disorder. The school were always on the phone to me and a parent helper physically assaulted him in the playground one day.

Instead, he did very well in his GCSEs, has taken excellent care of his friends, worked hard at his A levels and is now studying at Oxford. I still have to pinch myself to make sure it's all real. He even goes to church 😀

My mum thought I would be the high flyer and my sister the housewife and mother. She got it completely the wrong way round 🤣

Ds1 we said would be a teacher, he was for a couple of years but hated it! He’s now works in risk assessment.
Ds2 I struggled to imagine him doing anything he was such a difficult child in many ways. He’s now training to be a radiographer!
So proud of them both

My daughter has grown up to be (almost) the teacher she always wanted to be (she always wanted to teach mainstream secondary PE, she works as a teacher in a special school and is bloody good at her job).

My son has proved the world wrong and him right. He always said he'd be a falconer and he is which is bloody amazing seeing as he has a specific learning disability and Aspergers, the kid who hated social situations grew up to be able to stand in front of a crowd of hundreds and give informative, off the cuff talks about his beloved birds of prey (he still can't hold a conversation in the pub mind you but he has a good circle of close friends now).

I'm on tenterhooks waiting to hear if my amazing first born has been accepted as a direct entry Detective Constable. She started off age 5 wanting to be a human rights lawyer and has took many paths since then. I'm proud she has got this far and I know she will be amazing if she gets in. But if she doesn't - she might as well go travelling again and give me daily heart attacks that way instead!

DD1 very bubbly, lots of friends, did ok at school but not outstanding at anything. I thought she would be a good health care professional. She hated the sight of blood.
She's now an HR head of a large national retailer, being paid shit loads!
Having just had a baby, she now wants to retrain as a midwife!!,
DD2 totally the opposite. Only one or two friends, very studious, gifted academically. She always wanted to have a career using maths, even from very young. She's now working for one of the big 5 accountancy firms as a graduate. Both girls are wonderful with children, very independent and the pride of my life.

DS1 (aged 22) wanted to build racing cars aged 2. He was obsessed. He now works for a prestigous company that hand build racing cars. He has never wavered and I had no doubt he'd achieve his dream.

We thought that ds25 would got to uni and get a great job, he was obsessed with numbers and statistics. He went to uni got in debt, got evicted then came home and got a decent job but not what we thought he would do.
Dd27 was attracted to all things sparkle, couldn't take her any where, in family joke she was going to be a cat burglar. She work as an admin manager and makes jewellery in her spare time, she still loves sparkles.
Dd28 we thought she would get a job she liked but not go very far, shy, picked on at school, did naff in her exams she was not very academic and was kicked out of child care due to a dislocated knee. Went into ICT and has ended up with a job she loves, and has been headhunted a couple of times.

DS loved art, was very good at it. Bookworm. Good at science.

Now drives tanks. Spurns all things airy fairy or intellectual.

Oddsocksandmeatballs that brought tears of happiness and hope to my eyes. No doubt your unwavering support has enabled your son to achieve his dream, and your daughter to excel in her career.

I was always going to be a writer (still am but still haven't written anything) I was ambitious (still am) but didn't achieve my full potential (still don't)

My sister was going to be a teacher and have kids. She is a teacher but hasn't had kids yet.

My brother was always going to do music, and has.

My other brother we weren't sure (still aren't)

My daughter will be a barrister or something legal

My son I don't know yet but he's very gentle but also strong willed

I wish I had been a GP but I didn't know how much health interested me until I had health problems of my own