What if trade is not something your son is passionate about? The cost of higher education is annoying, but this is a good opportunity to get work experience in little side jobs to make money instead of abandoning what you want to do for a trade and/or time for a parent to invest money into their child’s future). There is no reason to go the “easy route” if it is not something you are passionate about since going completely contrary to what you want generally leaves you miserable long term.
That is where you misunderstand. The feud between, bobby1, you, and other posters goes way back. His exaggerations or biased claims of the east do not annoy me one bit. I just disagree and move on. But for others, it seems personal.
I feel that the uni is making him miserable, Many brown kids go to uni to please their parents. i did intensive planning when I raised them, I trained them to be very strong so they may join police, army, physical work, fire fighters etc. I worked on giving them great social skills and personalities so they can be in service industry if they choose or a career in sales and also they went to academic focus school. all we can do is provide choices, I think safy will do great in Real Estate. Many gorgeous people capitalise on the looks and go into real estate. Also there are diplomas which pay better than degrees. One of my customer did a masters, couldn’t get a job and then she did lab tech and now makes 80k.
So please listen to me very carefully as we are 8 siblings and I am the youngest and i watched their parenting very carefully, one of my nephews was passionate about philosophy, the whole family was against him taking a degree in philosophy, he got mad. He posted a video against family pressure on young turks, completed degree i think from ivy league, couldn’t get a job, studied to be a teacher, didnt like that, started studying nursing quit that also and now delivers food…teenagers mostly don’t know what they like.
In the end you need to be able to make a comfortable living. We are biologically designed to take the shortest route to gratification so what most want is to sit on the couch, someone feeds them and play video games. Before you send your kid to school make sure you study median incomes, employment rates and future demand.
And for every anecdotal story you give me I can counter with one of my own. Based on what you have written above the young mans problems had little to do with his degree and mostly to do with his lack of wherewithal, drive, and ability to see a path through until the end. That lazy attitude of his has nothing to do with philosophy. My aunt has a philosophy degree as well and quite easily found employment in Canada (Newfoundland no less) at a bank. It’s about knowing how to sell yourself and parlay your experiences/skillset/what have you into gainful employment.
Alright. So you believe the university route isn’t working for him. This would be the time to talk to him and really inquire about how he feels about what he is doing at the moment, and if you are correct in your assumptions then this would be the time to seriously plan out what career path to invest in. Really look at if he is right for real estate or whatever by at the very least having him “job shadow” you or whatever. People may think they might be cut out for something after reading some online description and looking at the average starting salary, but actually looking at the job in motion is a whole different eye opening experience.
No doubt the biggest task of the parent is to give their children life skills including great soft skills, having a personality, being charming, socially successful, disciplined and structured and now building a resume involves a lot more than just education, when I look at resumes most people here have done a lot of extra curricular activities and volunteering etc and started working at around 15, most of the eastern kids only had education on the resume.
I know many people working at the bank with a high school diplomas, only the bank manager at a branch makes money. Unless your aunt is a Sr. VP this is not a great example. My wife’s nephew is a very senior officer at TD, he is head of his division and has only high school diploma.
So now you’re pretending to know what my aunt makes because you “know some people who work in a bank”? Not everyone needs to be earning millions to be happy. She has a nice little house and takes a vacation once a year. She likes the people she works with, her job gives her time for her hobbies (painting the cliffs and beaches for instance) and will likely retire just fine in another 5 to 8 years. Some people would call this a good life. I guess you aren’t one of them but I know people earning quite a bit more than her and they are miserable. Not all but happiness is not determined by largess. Look I don’t have any issue with you Bobby but all you ever talk about is money. I get that having it can make certain things fun/better but, and I really am in a position to know this, it doesn’t save you from heartache, sickness, and unhappiness. At a certain cut off point it doesn’t even make you more happy
