What job/career did you want but your parents blocked?

[Fancydancer1934]

When I was 16 (over forty years ago) I wanted to join the WRENS (woman's royal navy). I'm an only child and mom and dad said no. By the time I hit 18 had lost interest. Fast forward 40+ Years got a good job but it's not my life's work - anyone got a similar story?

Pilot, not deemed that intellectual so they wrinkled their noses and pointed out that you’d needed thousands to train - which they were not going to give me. I went to some careers day thing and came home delighted that all I had to do was join the RAF, stay for 9 years (or something) they’d train me and I could leave and pick up a job as an airline pilot. Went down like a bag of cold sick. Then 9/11 changed aviation drastically and they convinced me that if I joined up I’d be bombing schools and hospitals then getting killed in action.

Blows my mind that I didn’t ask anyone else or try a little bit harder to get what I wanted. I worked in an airport for a while and know I’d have fucking loved being a pilot.

I wanted to be a florist but was told to study to get a real job.

After my first flight, I was so impressed by the beautiful and elegant Flight Attendants that had been on our flight. I told my Mum I wanted to be one, and her response was, it was similar to being a bar maid. That totally killed the vibe but continued to quietly admire/envy them. Turns out I'm too short to have been one anyway.

I wanted to work with dead bodies, whether that was as a undertaker or working in hospitals I genuinely didn’t mind which role, the death and decomposition process fascinated me (and still does) my parents (mainly my mum) thought I was weird, not normal and needed help and I wasn’t under any circumstances doing any of those roles as a career 🙄 (this is despite my mum being a nurse on end of life wards ….) and I got encouraged to work in an office instead!

I wanted to be a nun. I’m aimlessly drifting without purpose in my mid-thirties and still no idea what career would suit me so I’m stuck with what I trained in even though it doesn’t light up my life. But I don’t think nun would have been ideal as I’ve two kids now lmao.

Chef. Worked at a waitress part-time from 16, chef in restaurant was an alcoholic who spent a lot of time asleep so I started cooking and loved it, the owner realised what was happening and offered to sponsor me through catering college etc, my parents flat-out refused, I ended up doing a secretarial course and working in offices, I was a lot older when I realised why my parents reacted the way they did, I'd been having health issues since age 12 after a bout of glandular fever and was later diagnosed with fibromyalgia caused by the viralinfection, physically I'd never have coped but they didn't want to frighten me by telling me, they were absolutely correct, I ended up being forced to retire at 37 due to my health, had been years working for a charity and loved it, was advancing my career and studying but my body couldn't cope.

An accountant. I’m still really pissed off with my mother for interfering.

I wanted to retrain at 31 but dh’s career at that point wasn't stable enough for me to not be working. And now we cannot afford to go down to one wage.

I went through a phase of wanting to join the RAF, but my dad (who was in the Navy), recognising that my poor eyesight and distinct lack of respect for authority might be something of a hindrance, said no.

With hindsight, he was completely right. I wouldn't have lasted a week. 😄

Wanted to join the Navy
Found that the Navy didn't allow females on ships at that time
Disappointed

Wow, can't believe some of these stories. My parent encouraged us to follow our dreams and study/do whatever job we wanted.

Journalist.

In hindsight, they were right.

Definitely have ambitions of being a famous writer. Have been working on a terrible novel for months now and getting nowhere with it.

Me - not exactly blocked by parents- psychologist, but I moved out when I was 16 due to parents toxic relationship/divorce.

DH was due to start a job as an insurance broker. All set to start on the Monday morning and FIL phoned the company and said no son of his is being a salesman and they will put DH in the underwriting team.

DH didn’t know about the phone call until he left after 2 years of being disliked by his colleagues.

I had really controlling parents who went to the length of intercepting and destroying my university acceptance letters to force me to study in the place they wanted and the course they had chosen for me.

I was thinking of studying either journalism/media studies, psychology to work in the mental health sector or art at the time.

Without any input from myself they decided I would teach languages as a job as they fancied a lecturer/teacher in the family and they wanted me never to leave my little town so they forced me to study locally the topic they had picked for me through bullying and manipulation. I did not even finish the degree as unsurprisingly I hated it and had a breakdown after my second year.

In the end life reset things. I moved to London and I happily worked in media/communication for 15 years meeting and working with people like Boris Johnson, Penny Mordaunt (I am not a Tory but when working in PR you don't always choose who you collaborate/work with! ...) and HRH The Princess Royal.

I fancied a change after that and spent several years running mental health projects for charities and I also became a professional artist on the side after returning to university part-time as an adult and going to Central St Martins.

I might not be a wealthy person but I got to work in the fields that interested me and literally ticked off the list of professions I had made as a 17 year old!

As for my parents I cut contact with them most of my adult life.

A cautionary tale I would say for parents who think they can get to dictate what their kids should do with their lives...

I wanted to be an actress as a teenager..'you will be always out of work ' they wanted me to work in a bank
Other jobs I wanted to do I couldn't, police- too short- height restrictions in those days
Navy- females were shore bound in those days, I wanted to be on a ship.
Footballer- female so 'girls don't play football' , currently watching the women's euros wishing I was 30 years younger..

Also over 40 years ago, but a bit different as it wasn't something I actually wanted to do, my Dad, a policeman at the time, always said he would not be happy about me joining the police force.

He had seen and dealt with things that I suppose he felt nobody should have to do, particularly his own daughter.

Not my parents, but headmistress of my school didn't think the law or medicine were suitable professions for women and so would refuse to sign UCCA forms for girls wanting to do law or medicine. The girls effected would take a year off, working and get their employer to sign. This was in the late 60s and 70s when taking a year out from school and uni was underheard of. I left school in 1979 and she was still refusing to sign. Shameful.