To ask what career would you like your kids to do?

[Pointlessfact]

Can be anything

Being a football fan , obviously a footballer would be high up there

And then maybe a doctor or a lawyer

One of mine wants a job with short hours, lots of holidays, no stress and enough money to have quite a nice life whilst putting in as little effort as possible

The other wants to do the job that pays the most money.

Will be interesting to see how their lives pan out.

Selfishly I wouldn't want them in the armed forces.

My only non negotiable 'rule' on the subject of jobs is that there is no option to be doing nothing

I've got a list of jobs I don't want them to do... Anything which involves pushing their bodies too far - no professional sports or dance, nothing dangerous - armed forces etc., nothing that's going to leave them open to public scrutiny - politics, pop star...

My 2 criteria for their future jobs are: something that pays the bills, something that makes them happy. Beyond that, I'd like it to be something that doesn't take them too far away from me!

Oh dear mumsymcmumface, you are sooo wrong.

Teachers can and do become ‘the disappeared’ on a very regular basis, because they have experience and are therefore more expensive. So where’s the decent salary? It isn’t minimum wage, but it sure as eggs isn’t generous.

Time off for stress? Surely anyone who is signed off by their GP, whatever the reason, has a genuine illness.

Loads of holiday

A job for life? No- a job for a couple of years, before you’re burnt out or managed out.

Out of the people I kept in touch with from university, I think on the whole the engineers seem to have a good balance:
Interesting, stimulating work in different parts of the country (not tied to London)
Decent enough money, albeit not megabucks
Not too much of a long-hours culture and some flexibility

One of mine wants to be a vet, the other a teacher.

Happiness is more important than money, I'd never encourage mine into any job/career for the money, working conditions etc.
It only makes them unhappy and resentfu

Doing a job that makes you happy if you EITHER:
Have no interests outside your job
Or
The job ALSO pays you enough to visit friends, try hobbies, go on trips, live somewhere pleasant..

"Doing a job that makes you happy *only works if..."

Trade. To work for themselves in any field

As long as my dc are happy, I don't really care. However, I don't want any of them to follow me into teaching. I doubt, having grown up watching me, they'd want to thank God

The two eldest are both interested in different areas of psychology again probably from watching me and youngest dc wants to be a scuba diver right now

I have one training to teach, one (girl) about to qualify as a mechanic and one heading to uni to do forensics.

As for LO I am hoping for something funky and fun but she'll probably end up doing something odd.

As long as they are happy I'm happy

I mean seriously, no matter how nice your job is, if youre going home to a damp dark horrible flat that and you dont have the deposit to move, you cant afford to travel to friends weddings and other gatherings, your hobbies are limited because they have to be free....how happy are you really gonna be??
.....money DOES matter!!

Gimme a dull (ie not too stressful) well paying job any day so that I can have exciting hobbies and interests elsewhere and can say "yes" to invites and breaks away with friends, live somewhere bright and airy, afford to look after my health & wellness& fitness etc..

Something portable, which you can do anywhere and doesn't tie you to a specific location.

Something which doesn't take over your entire life and make you stressed out all the time.

Something which pays reasonably but isn't dominated by people who muddle up salary with value as a person.

But whatever they want really as long as it's not ridiculously risky, unreliable or limiting in terms of work life balance.

Currently all 3 want to be teachers (one primary, one maths, one PE) but I assume they'll grow out of it I was a teacher for 6 years and wouldn't recommend it, but we live abroad where teachers are more respected, better paid, and not expected to do as much outside the core teaching role as in the UK, so maybe it would be ok here.

I hadn't actually realised the title was what do you want your DC to be!
Obviously bus driver and inventor are their choices!

I think I just want them to be able to live a reasonable life and be fulfilled. For one, I think that does mean being an inventor, the other, maybe a scientist of some sort, or a performer of some kind.

In my city (SE) I'm seeing and hearing about so many 20 and 30 somethings just starting their own business, using the power of social media in its many forms to promote their product or service.

I think there's subsequently a bit of a quiet revolution going on with young people's career choices and in the last year or so I've gone from worrying about what will happen to my two teens, to feeling pretty positive about their future.

Also, I think people now have more than one career, either through choice or circumstance, and it's much more accepted to just stop and retrain for something else.