Parents Should Not Choose Their Children Career Essay Example

The Importance of Career Counseling for Children

In the present ever-evolving world, there are numerous careers available however the job market is very competitive. Every teacher, parent or guardian should be figuring out ways of fitting their children into highly competitive and involving work environment. Career counseling is an important aspect that should be taught to growing children in an effort to help them make informed decisions about their future. Counseling children help them choose careers based on their future goals, research, interests, and personal preferences. Parents who have all input in a child's career fails to support the child's abilities and interests leading to career dissatisfaction. Although teachers, career counselors, and peers play an important in one's career development, parental influence and expectations have been proven to veto all the other influences and therefore, becoming almost the primary guidance to the children's career choices (Adda, Dustmann & Stevens, 2017). Parental advice in most instances is not an expert opinion thus can mislead the child. Teachers and career counselors are likely to choose careers more objectively than parents do. Parents should not choose careers for their children because they ought to be sensitive to their children's abilities, interests, preferences, and attitudes and allow people with the expertise to advise them to make informed choices.

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Parental Influence in Career Choices

Career is an important part of life and impacts the quality of one's entire living. A child has only one chance in his or her lifetime to make a choice on what he or she really wants to pursue thus the importance of giving a child an opportunity to establish the kind of job or activities he or she will undertake to realize their dreams. Failure to make a correct career choice leads to the wrong profession. The child lacks the abilities, interests or right attitudes to perform the tasks that are prerequisite to that particular field (Li & Yeo, 2011). Wrong decisions result in dwindling in one's performance and eventual failure to actualize career satisfaction. For example, a child who pursues medicine yet he or she lacks interest in reading widely -medicine requires a lot of reading- or necessary skills to handle patients end up mismanaging patients and gets entangled in lawsuits. Often, children tend to go by the parents' career recommendations only to realize later they made a wrong decision. Some cases have been reported where a child pursues a certain career up to the level of a degree only to realize that is not what he or she really wanted in life. The child is forced to put aside the earned degree and pursue their career. They abandon what was initially recommended by the parents. To avoid this, children should be given plenty of opportunities and freedom to have strong contribution and decisions on their careers.

It takes plenty of resources both time and money to train a child to develop specific skills. Recommending a wrong career to a child will lead to spending a lot without eventually getting the anticipated returns. Since time and paid fees are non-refundable, opportunity costs are high, and it simply adds to prospects lost in life (Gibbons & Silva, 2011). Parents should, therefore, be wary of forcing children into careers they don't deserve or have interest in. It makes no sense paying a lot of fees for a child to study electrical engineering for six years and they will never practice it in their lifetime. Instead, the child opts to study business administration as an intercalated master's course and ventures in business. If the child was allowed to study economics in his or her undergraduate education, he could have realized more success in his career. The best approach is exposing children to different fields, various career counselors and the people who have gone through certain careers to acquire information. Once they are equipped with facts on various careers, they should be allowed to make determined decisions on chosen streams and paths. This way, the parents will save their resources for the right purpose, and the child will have more time to pursue their interests compressively.

It is the children who will eventually work in the careers they pursue as opposed to the parents who are choosing for them. There is a big temptation for the parents to subject their children to the careers they ever wanted to take or the careers they have pursued. Some parents want to keep a dynasty of certain careers to run from one generation to the next. Additionally, many parents argue that their children can't take the courses they perceive inferior to what they studied. Not everyone can be a medical doctor or an engineer, but many parents think those are the only top courses for the children. Another predicament arises when a child scores very high grades in their secondary education before joining college. Being smart is not tantamount to having interest in competitive courses. Parents should understand that coercing a child to take a certain cause is a wrong choice in life and can culminate in terrible and unproductive future for the child (Entwisle, 2018). The child may follow the parent on the basis of emotions, but the parents have themselves to blame if the child fails to actualize the career expectations. There is a rift between saying and doing.

Balancing Parental Aspirations and Children's Individuality

Every child is unique and different in his or her own way. Children differ in abilities, focus, and skills. Some children are smart in communication skills, others in writing, drawing, games, mathematical intellect or leadership competence. Parents should be at the forefront in helping the children recognize what they are best in and support them to actualize their potential. Avoiding imposing careers on children will help the children avoid stressful atmosphere as they pursue their careers. Work done under pressure has never yielded success. Stressed children will always work under duress, and there is a disconnect between the senses controlling one's peace of mind. Forced career is a form of slavery where the heart and mind are never committed to one cause of success. There is a deficiency in everything done, and the child fails miserably while trying to find themselves in a career they don't understand.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a parent choosing a career for their children has many negative implications. Over the years, demands for various careers have evolved, and the parents should learn to cultivate the interest and capacities of their children. Every child is unique and different, and this should be reflected in their training to help them to become what they want. Time and resources invested in training a child should be reflected in the returns the child garners from the career. Parents should only play a subordinate role in exposing their children to various careers and career counselors to aid them to make informed decisions.

Essay Outline

Introduction

Overview: The demands in working environment are changing, and all parents and career counselor should adjust to fit children needs.

Thesis: The parents should not choose careers for their children because they ought to be sensitive to their children's abilities, interests, preferences, and attitudes and allow people with the expertise to advise the children to make informed choices.

Body

Topic sentence 1: Career is an important part of life and impacts the quality of one's entire life

Topic sentence 2: It takes plenty of resources in terms of time and money to train a child to develop specific skills in a career.

Topic sentence 3: It is the children who will eventually work in the careers they pursue as opposed to the parents who are choosing for them.

Topic sentence 4: Every child is unique and different in his or her own ways

Conclusion: Choosing careers for children has many negative implications and parents should only play a peripheral role in helping children choose the right careers.

References

Adda, J., Dustmann, C., & Stevens, K. (2017). The career costs of children. Journal of Political Economy, 125(2), 293-337.

Entwisle, D. R. (2018). Children, schools, and inequality. Routledge.

Gibbons, S., & Silva, O. (2011). School quality, child wellbeing and parents' satisfaction. Economics of Education Review, 30(2), 312-331.

Li, J., & Yeo, R. K. (2011). Quality of work life and career development: perceptions of part-time MBA students. Employee Relations, 33(3), 201-220.