Interesting post, kimck.
I definitely think there's more to life than feeling your own brilliance and chasing a high-powered career, if that's not where your heart lies.
It wouldn't be hard to look at my life and say that I'm underachieving, since I'm a SAHM and not out conquering the world as people thought I would when I was young. But I'd be miserable in that sort of life, and I'm happy as a lark in this life. If I get my novel published, I'll pretty much have everything I have ever wanted in life, though this isn't the life I envisioned for myself way-back-when.
<shrug>
I think it all comes back to what we value. If you think your child is "wasting" his/her talents unless he/she is in some high-pressure environment or top of the heap in a highly competitive field, then you may wind up disappointed and with a very rebellious, unhappy child who hates you for never understanding who s/he is.
I have my guesses about what my kids will become when they grow up, but that's just for fun, to see how close DH and I get to what they really wind up doing. My ultimate goal for both my kids is the same as it has been since before they were born: I hope that they grow up to be happy, healthy, well-adjusted, productive members of society, in whatever form that takes for them.
An electrician in Alaska? Sure! Great spot for us to take our retirement trips! A high-powered executive with his finger on the pulse? Yup, if he is able to do that and still find joy and balance in his life. A poet in a cabin in the wilderness? Sure, if that works for him.
I can't imagine anything productive that my kids could become that would disappoint me. I completely agree, kimck, that "at the end of the day, it really is all about them and what they want to do and where their interests and motivations lie."
In the end, it's not my life; it's my child's. They're all different. And thank goodness for that!
