Careers for highly sensitive people (orchid child)

[Wearegettingthere]

What sort of careers would you suggest for a highly sensitive person?DD likes acting but that is a competitive world. She doesn’t want to do office jobs. I thinking working for herself would suit her best. Something like therapist, acupuncturist, etc. She is very creative, perspective, imaginative but doesn’t cope well in stressful environments.

Link?!!

Im a rose personally - stunningly beautiful and fragrant but can be spiky

The OP’s child is an orchid, too beautiful and sensitive to grow outside a carefully-cosseted greenhouse, unlike the rest of us dandelions who are so hard bitten we flourish on roadsides and rubbish dumps.

(Though whoever coined the term clearly doesn’t know much about orchids, as lots of wild ones live in fairly challenging environments.)

We’re all sensitive people and I don’t know anyone who enjoys unproductive or excessive stress. Most of us get over ourselves and stop thinking we’re special.

Your DD on NO account should do anything in any way where she’s responsible for caring for or advising anybody. Never a counsellor or acupuncturist unless she can stop being self-absorbed and think about others rather than herself.

But maybe it’s you @Wearegettingthere maybe you need to raise your DD to be resilient and outward looking?

I love you @MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack

This might be the most cringe post on mn I've ever seen.

Both you and your daughter need fresh air, and hobbies and to get off social media where people wring their hands and speak like wet lettuces.

It's up to your daughter what she does in the future not you.

I want to know what my children are!!! I’m fairly certain the eldest is a Japanese knotweed.

😆

I don’t think being a therapist, acupuncturist or anything where you need to deal with people’s emotions or health are a good idea for a sensitive person. She will struggle and clients can pick up on what the person is giving out.

Beauty therapy is good if she likes to chat, massage is better if she doesn’t. I wouldn’t be encouraging someone into a creative career as their main job. To be honest, office work, especially from home, is boring but probably the best career for sensitive people! Then she can have creative hobbies and side jobs if she wants

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Brilliant!

An embroiderer. I think it’s the perfect job for a sensitive creative type. I’d love that. Except I’m not creative or sensitive and have shitty eyesight.

being self employed is hard.
working alone isolates you so thats hard too.
counselling type therapies burn the therapist out.
even doing lashes can be stressful if complaints received!

nothing is without stress. she needs to build resilience. which means doing things you dont want to do to toughen up.

Oh so that's why I hate working! I'm just a grown up orchid child. Can't wait to have that conversation with my boss on Monday! 😁

@Wearegettingthere Stop labelling your (pretty much adult) child as some sort of shy, retiring delicate flower. I sincerely hope that she is not aware of your highly negative opinion of her capabilities.

Why are you getting involved in trying to think of a career for her? Do not push her in directions you think would suit her. I can't imagine why you think being a therapist would be a good idea. Besides, in order to be a therapist of any kind you need to be exceptionally self-confident and resilient.

Well. What gentle jobs are there ? As someone has said being self employed requires a degree of resilience and tenacious spirit. Anything, anything where you interact with others will mean you have to work with people who you might not like much. Have to rub along with. From colleagues to customers.

Calling her an orchid child is unhelpful. If she has this perception that she is delicate and precious she will be entirely unprepared for the rough and tumble of life outside the home.

Sorry not to be more helpful. Perhaps she can try some volunteering for a charity or something first ?

This! 🤣

This is excellent advice.

Wow the empathy on this thread is MIA (not all but… whooo bit of a pile on no?) . I think a good place to start would be with a bit of respect for the OP - a mum who wants to look out for her kid.

OP - this is what your kid is going to have to deal with, no matter what career she goes into. So…in my opinion what she wants to do has got to come from herself. If you can, give her lots of exposure to different things so she finds the right zone ( creative scientific whatever) that will allow her to find her internal motivation for dealing with all of the stuff life WILL throw at her. If she wants to do it for herself she will find the right tools for handling the tougher bits (or even better, learn to ask for help in dealing with specific issues). I don’t understand the details of the analogy to flowers - but I do know there are many, many types of orchids - and you can’t know, until she tries, where she will thrive best.

Looking out for your child doesn’t involve indirect discouragement via labelling them as a special flower FFS. Any responsible parent would be trying to encourage their child away from being so shy/sensitive/‘special’, rather than making it their entire personality

A mother who has adopted a particularly silly bit of pop psychology to label her almost-adult child, and is demonstrating a total lack of insight into the various careers she is proposing for her unusually sensitive (or cossetted) child.

Maybe her DD will get into a good drama school on her third go, front out the auditions and forge a career for herself in a difficult career, despite disappointments and rejections. Maybe she'll turn out hard as nails, bouncing back from every no.

She has autism or ADHD. She is not an "orchid child".

There are plenty of careers for neurodivergent adults but it varies massively depending on their interests. Self employment is usually a good way to determine your own hours and mostly work alone with only occasional client contact.

Acting is absolutely the wrong career for anyone sensitive- l would suggest something tech related that is WFH.

Gardener
Librarian
programmer
scientist
podiatrist
Florist
photogrpher
psychologist
occupstional therapist