Would you be proud if your child graduates and decides to work in construction? How about if your child decides to work in fast food or a factory? I ask because I would be proud no matter what my son decides to do as long as it is an honest job. I don't think success is defined by having a white collar job and having college degrees. I don't find anything wrong with either one of those, I just don't like the push for a certain standard of success that doesn't include people who don't have degrees or a certain income level or a certain type of job. A friend of mine has spoken to me about another homeschooling mom who's son had graduated and was working in the restaurant industry. She basically had the opinion that somewhere along the line their was a failure in him or his homeschooling. I don't think that is necessarily true. Some people like working in restaurants. I did it for about 18 years. I started out in fast food and I worked up to assistant manager. It was a tough job and honest work. I am not ashamed of it at all. I enjoyed it a lot of the time and I loved the fact that I wasn't sitting at a desk working. This same friend also wants to assure her children's future so they won't have to be exposed to the elements (hot/cold weather). But, again there are many people who wouldn't want to trade their outdoor job for a desk job even if it means being outdoors in bad weather. So, what do you all (or y'all, in Texas) think?
As long as my child was doing something they loved (or at least liked) and were doing it to the best of their ability I would not care. I would be bothered if they were just doing it because it is a job and just falls in their lap . I know someone who works construction, not because he wants to but because he does not really want to look for anything else or really put any effort into finishing his degree. I do not even think the job is full time but I could be wrong. He has a very apathetic attitude towards work. That would bother me. If you want to do construction be the best at it that you can be. I guess it is an issue of having a good work ethic and pride in the job you are doing no matter what it is.
Being from blue collar stock myself, I understand the necessity in our society for those menial labor jobs. I personally have a tendency to teach my kids in a way that prepares them for similar work. I didn't realize I could be limiting them until just recently. My dd11 may want to go to nursing school. I'm thrilled, I really am. But I am just as thrilled that ds9 wants to fish professionally. Yeah, like in bass tournaments. My older son has tried college 3 times and is finally getting to the point of understanding that college isn't for everybody and is happy with his job at the golf course. Frankly I'm glad he's ready to move on. If my child is a golf course attendant, I want him to be the best there is. If my daughter wants to be a SAHM, I want her to be passionate about it. I, too, think it's more about work ethic. God has given us each gifts and talents and He expects us to use them to the best of our ability. Whether that's in the warehouse or the corner office.
Hey, if he was making ends meet, was happy in his job, and was confident that he was exacly where God wanted him to be, then I'd be proud of him!
AMEN Jackie! :lol: If my girls are doing something they love and they are happy and are productive ... I am proud!
We fight that attitude from grandparents. Who think that if you do not have a college degree then you are not worthy. But my dh doesn't have a degree and I can tell you he is way smarter then me, with my BA! We do not plan to push our kids to college. I wish I could remember the name of the book, but there was a guy talking on the radio that had just written a book about how college limits people. It makes you pick a career so early on when you don't really know who you are. Then most kids are in debt when they get out of college and have to take a job just to pay the bills. Then they have to keep their job until they are old to pay off those student loans. Where as a person who isn't laden with a piece of paper telling them what to do has more freedom and choices of where and what to do with their lives. They also do not have the same debt load that a college grad has. So they start off their lives ahead financially better off then the counterparts. I thought it was a great thing to hear. I know it doesn't stand true for all. There are lots of kids who's parents go into debt putting them through college or a few who actually have money saved for them. There are also a few who become doctors and nurses and lawyers who need a degree to do their dream job. But it took away the feeling of you have to go to college. to succeed.
As long as they are happy and doing what they want too. I always tell everyone someone has to work there. I would be so happy for my girls as long as they are happy... and doing what they want.
Our nation is going to have a glut of college kids who are deeply in debt and hurting for a job...ANY job. The sad thing is that many went to school and went into debt and won't be able to get a job doing what they went to college for. I also know that our nation is starting to have a shortage of professionals who know Plumbing, Electrical, Masonry, etc. Unfortunately, our mindsets have been quite prejudiced agains Tech Schools and those types of blue collar jobs. So, we have been giving our kids the impression that blue collar work...plumbing, electrical...etc., is not respectable work. We have been pushing our kids to attend a "real" college...not realizing that not every young person wants or needs to go to college to be successful or happy.
Neither of the parents who raised me nor the mother who bore me finished high school. It was a different generation and time then. I was the first in my adoptive family and first in my birthfamily to go to college AND get a Master's. My daughter was college bound from the get-go but had/has no idea what she wanted to "be". She stopped schooling after her BA. I always told my son - who as a child had dreams of becoming an entomologist and discovering some new species of bug in the rainforest somewhere - that whatever he chose to be, be the best one he could possibly be. And if he chose to be the garbage collector, or a ditch digger, or whatever, it should be because he CHOSE it and not because he couldn't do anything else, and whatever it was, I'd be proud of him. He chose culinary school at a vo-tech "college". He didn't stay with it, because he found he was not tempermentally suited to the high pressure of a large commercial kitchen. He's done several different kinds of jobs since then. My friend's son was a gifted student who went to college without ever having to study. He messed up, though, and ran into some trouble with the law, a felony. But he was never happy in college anyway, so it didn't hurt his feelings much that he didn't finish. He's now a very successful welder and has enjoyed working all over the US.
We can't all be in white colar jobs.. Someone has to do the manual public labor jobs.. My kids are considering the military.. My 14 year old is set on the airforce.. So Whatever my kids decide to do I'm fine with that.. As long as they are working in an honest job and doing their best that's all the matters.. My husband says that he would rather be working in a job that he loves and not making a lot of money than having to go to a job he hates... He's a mechanic... And a GOOD one at that.. The shops in town are constantly trying to get him to work for them but he's loyal to the small mom and pop business that he works at.. Been there for 8 years in April...
I have to agree with you 100 percent. My dd who is college now went to listen to a speaker the other day that was out of this world. She told me he said over half the kids who are in college now will live and do a blue collar job and have debts so high they can't enjoy anything else in life. So, sad he told them to take as many class as they can afford take alittle longer to get there and that way you will make sure its what you want to do and hopeful you find something in your field when you are done. Its just so sad that every one things they have to start at the top of the ladder. Well its like I have always told my girls I have always started at the bottom it takes along time to get to the top if ever but do what you enjoy and don't worry about the top.. sometimes being at the top is not all what its cut out to be. Be happy enjoy life and remember life is short. Flipping hambs., helping a old lady to the bathroom, checking someone out is a job that someone has to do so keep your head high and be proud what ever you do.. just remember we love you and thats the most important thing
It depends! We have an agreement with our children that we pay their college fees up-front, but they must pay back half of them interest-free. We expect them to take that charge seriously, and our two oldest children are making monthly payments. It's been a real struggle for us to meet our side of the bargain. If, after graduating, they took rather flippantly a very poorly paid job with little hope of advancement, I would not be happy. It doesn't mean I don't love them or am not proud of them in other ways, but I would be very disappointed about their choice. We struck a deal, and I expect them to honor it to the best of their abilities. There are responsibilities to be faced in life, and part of being a parent is preparing our children for them.
I will be grateful for my kids success in whatever honest pursuit they take on. Be it white collar, or blue collar, entrepenurial etc etc. I have two freinds who both went to the same high school I attended, who are examples that success can be atypical. One did not graduate, (there were alot of large life issues that came up his senior year) and started working in restaurants. He did this for years, then worked for temporary services. He attended some high school completion courses, but the program was a joke, and I encouraged him to simply get his GED. He taught himself to programming, and databases etc etc. This led to opportunities, and he no makes more than 100K a year and has mentored others "loosers" to do the same. He has PhD's working for him. Another freind has always had low level jobs, by societies standards. Working in warehouses, on loading docks and bagging groceries. Despite this persons low income levels, he is pretty well off financially. He and his wife have always been frugal, and always saved. They did not have cable, newspapers, and did not drink or smoke, and avoided using credit at all costs. House and cars paid for, zero debt, and kids college money already banked and waiting. THere are many who cannot say this despite making many times more income each year. It is all a matter of what you call success. Attitude and work ethic mean just as much as a degree. I think that having a good work ethic and a good since of duty will direct our children away from positions that do not challenge them and fail to fulfill potential. Cornish Steve, I agree that if your kids, can they need to get work that will allow them to meet their obligation. On the other hand, as will all debt, their arrangement with you limits their freedom. Debt is always bondage in one way or another, even if borrowing from parents.
I disagree and agree with you. What if there is no job out there for them in there field? Wouldn't you rather have them working some places. Also you have to think there is going to be more people without these high paying jobs as we keep shipping them off to other countries.
I don't mean to demean low-paying jobs. If that's the only option available to someone, it's the best option. As others have pointed out, with the right attitude they can become a springboard to better things. I suppose my comment was more about attitude. Taking the low road when there are responsibilities to be met is not something I would be proud of.
I've been thinking on a related topic recently. While visiting a country overseas, I was struck by all the complaints of so many graduates leaving university and being unable to find a job. Isn't this a terrible indictment of the education system? Surely, one of the prime reasons for education is to prepare children for their adult lives - providing the knowledge and skills needed to work productively. Am I being unfair and harsh here? Is it fair to say that, whenever a graduate cannot find a job, the education system has failed yet again?
NO. Post secondary education is all about choice. It is about risk, investment etc. It is an option to pursue a post secondary education, not a mandate. Unfortunately, most in America have bought into the idea that if you choose to borrow, or spend others money to get an expensive education that you are additonally entitled to some garanteed level of income. Nope, you simply get a credential. The rest is up to you. Some buy effective credentials and some dont. Some choose markets and fields that have sufficient jobs available and others do not. This idea that someone can get a degree and walk out into sudden success, all backed by the goverment, is crazy. Shouldn't people starting businesses get the same deal? No all business ideas are good, not all businesses succeed. Sometimes things dont work out, and years of time and money go down the drain when the business fails. The same principals apply to getting a degree. Some times graduates have poorly invested their time and getting a particular degree. Sometimes, and I am afraid, very often, students will borrow beyond what a particular career field will reasonably allow them to repay. Sound similar to the real estate bubble? You bet it is. The next big bubble will be the education bubble.
Not at all. My hubby was unemployed for 2 years-during that time he tried to find a job but there weren't any. He'd go out pounding the pavement looking and I'd be online sending resumes and filling out applications. So, whenever anyone offered any opportunity to make a little cash-he took it. He worked construction. He cleaned out chicken houses. I'm actually going to encourage my children to NOT go to college. For many reasons. I find it silly that many jobs today require a degree...in anything. They don't care WHAT your degree is, just that you have one. I dont' even think they know WHY they want it! They are just so conformed to teh box that a 'degree' is necessary! Well you know what-a degree in archaeology isn't going to make you a better secretary...just sayin'...
