to ask is it normal for a 13 year old to know what they want to do when they grow up?

[var123]

DS1 is in year 9 and has to make his GCSE choices soon. He's been asked several times recently (by teachers, family, friends etc) what he wants to do when he grows up. He has absolutely no idea.

I thought it was normal not to know, and all he has to do with his GCSE choices is keep his options open. However, I am beginning to wonder if I am mistaken and most 13 /14 year olds do have a future career in mind that they are working towards?

Personally, I didn't find out what I wanted to do until I'd left university and had been working for about three years and it was a job that no one in my childhood world would have even heard of.

dodobookends - I saw the school's 2015 GCSE choices on the intranet. It might be different next month when DS1's year are given their choices, but I don't know if it will be yet.

Last year's form said choose one from each column and choose one MFL. Geography and history were in the same two columns as the MFLs and they weren't in any other columns, so that's why i said that DS would probably have to choose between geography and history.

BTW I'd love to see that algorithm that schools use for timetabling. The mind boggles when you think that they need to allocate a teacher and a big enough room to each class for every period in a fortnight. I guess its done using a computer program now but at my school in 1979, they must have done it by hand!

It's normal for a lot of 13-year-olds to know beyond doubt that they want to be a bestselling author/the next Beyonce/Britain's next top model/classical violinist/ballet dancer/TV chef. Then reality hits hard. If they've been any good at music or ballet or writing, it hits later, and much, much harder.

I think the 13-year-olds with no idea what they want to do are the lucky ones. They'll be able to take life as it comes.

Var, I have often said that too about timetabling - I bet that's a job no 13 year old ever aspires to!

I wanted to be a teacher or a nurse all through school. I ended up dropping out after GCSE's to get married and have children, worked in admin for years. Decided in my late 20's to leave my job and pursue my 'dream career' - midwifery. Lots of people change careers in later life and there's lots of ways of doing so. Try and not worry too much, so long as he tries to pick firstly subjects that he is interested in and can do well in, then secondly ensure there is a good mix (which is probably dictated by the matrix the choices are laid out in anyway) then he will be fine.

My DS is 15 and still does not know what he wants to do.

" timetabling - I bet that's a job no 13 year old ever aspires to!"

Even more so when a 13 y/o says - as happened in dd's class at the start of last term - "See you tomorrow Miss", the teacher replies "Not till next week now" - and then they compare timetables . . .

Some people do. By age 11 my sister had decided to be a teacher, and a teacher she was from graduation to retirement.

grumpy he wants to do an English Literature degree, for a while he thought about psychology but changed his mind.

yes i knew what i wanted to do at that age

and now many years later at 42 i still do the same and enjoy it :)

Hovis thanks. :) I'm definitely supporting her in what she would like to do. She has improved her writing style so much in the last year and gets brilliant reviews and feedback on the fan fiction sites. And I am impressed with the style and quality of what she writes. She spends so much of her time working on her writing that I keep telling her that she deserves to do well with her writing.

And it's a versatile dream, you can use writing in so many different jobs.

I was 17 before I knew what I wanted to do - to teach - and I was lucky that it's quite an easy thing as you train specifically for teaching rather than picking a subject based degree based on what you are good at and then leave uni not really knowing what you want to do, which a lot of my friends seemed to do.

My eldest two are 16 and 14 and neither has a clue what they want to do. They've both chosen a wide variety of subjects for N5 - French, 2 sciences, a social subject, engineering science in addition to maths and English. The elder has now done N5 and has chosen the subject they excell in - and are therefore interested in- for Highers.

I'm in my 40's and still don't know what I want to do - I am trapped in my career due to being pushed into it at 18 and I have too many dependants now to change it. I'm fine with my dcs taking time to see what's out there and make an informed decision.

It's fine and normal to be asked especially with GCSE choices coming up. It is equally normal to not have a clue what you want to do. It just helps if your DS has any ideas like he would like to work in business, medicial professions, catering, administration, overseas. Then it shapes the GCSE choices in terms of whether to do foreign languages for business or overseas work, or seperate science GCSEs in preparation for medical training, etc. It's not that it will cement their future career path but it will help them with their university options if they have taken the right GCSEs and A-levels.

Thehouse your DN has messed up his spy wish by telling people he wants to do that. When DH was at University someone had an interview with Security services. They asked him who knew he was attending and he said only his Mum so he was not interviewed. It's one of DH favourite mess up stories, he still finds it amusing 30 years later.

DH knew what he wanted to do when he was 6 and he has done that. He wanted to go to Cambridge and work in a science type job. DS has changed his mind a couple of times but all require maths and science GCSE subjects.

Russel it's a niece not a nephew but thanks for the tip! I'll tell her Mum!

I am at a loss to understand why a choice has to be made between geography and history.

Because there is not enough time on the timetable to do both in most cases and also both are not required for the EBacc.

My dad used to timetable a large (1300 kids) secondary school before he changed careers then retired. I'm not sure how he managed it, but I remember a lot of white boards, post it notes and swearing being involved

There are now computer programmes that do it. They can come out with ridiculous plans tho.

Sounds like a really good idea to help him pick GCSEs that keep his options open. I think even teenagers who know just what they want to do will change their minds several times before uni.

Both my DC are music mad and both are certain (age 13) that they want to go into the music business. I'm not putting them off but have steered them away from GCSEs that are so heavily arts and humanities based that they would close down any option to do a science based degree later on. But until this craze DS1 was hooked, from age 8, on being an engineer. Suddenly changed his mind when he went to secondary. His last obsessive career idea lasted 4 years so I'm wondering how long this one will last.

I didn't know what I wanted to do as a career. However, I was clear on what GCSEs I wanted to do, and what I wanted to study at university. I struggled with my A level choices though (or rather, my third subject, I did German and History but it took me until half term of my first term to stop faffing about changing subjects, I eventually did RE).