Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Non Traditional Careers for gifteds

this is such a fun thread! Unfortunately Aiden just wants to be a professional. But I can so see him as a stage actor. He can mimic a variety of poses, voices, stances and emotions all on command already. He has the best old man "grandpa" walk I have ever seen for example!

Nathan will probably be a shelf packer at the supermarket - he LOVES to sort and tidy the shelves at the tills. LOL

DD8 wants to be either a writer or an art teacher.

Love those hamster shots!

Dd is torn between lolly shop owner, toy shop owner, and robotics engineer...

Of the three I, of course, am pushing her in the direction of lolly shop owner...

omg i totally forgot but when DD8 was little, maybe 4, she used to play these online surgery simulation video games (don't look at me funny! i didn't bring that on...you know how gifted kids are!) and she loved to do the knee replacement best, over and over. She said when she grew up she wanted to be a Baby Knee Surgeon. I don't know how many babies blow out their knees but she was pretty bent on that for a while! Talk about specializing lol

In reality she spends most of her time drawing.

DD9 is looking toward acting.

I think I'll send her down to the studios to be an extra with her mother.

I don't want to be a killjoy, but I don't agree. Most passions make excellent hobbies, but poor career choices. I certainly don't want my children to grow up to find jobs that reward them all day, only to go home and worry about providing for their children at night. That's assuming they can even find a rewarding job related to their passion in the first place.

Maybe my perspective is skewed because I didn't follow my passion, but my reward comes at the end of the work day, not during it. When I considered following my passion, I thought how annoying it would be to have to work with/under people who would take the fun out of it. I chose something I was good at that paid well, and left ample time to spend with my spouse and now my children. It's easy to leave work at work because don't care that much about it.

I continued my passion as a hobby because it meant so much to me.... until I had kids. Now they mean so much more to me that I'm not even the same person I was before. If I had sacrificed traditional success for something that fell off the pedestal I had placed it on, I would certainly regret the decision.

FWIW, the passion I made a hobby out of was actually my second passion. The passion I had for horses (and my desire to own a horse farm when grown up) vanished almost instantly when my father brought home a stereo system with a cd player and 15" woofers when I was in 6th grade.

I don't actually have much of a passion or anything I'm really interested in doing in life, so I'm always amazed when people have passions or things they are interested in accomplishing and actually want to get up in the morning.

Work is work and it's generally going to be dull and boring, mostly because you have to spend time doing things you have zero interest in actually doing. But you do it to make money so that you get to eat and not be homeless. Things that are enjoyable tend to not generate revenue.

I am just about falling out of my chair laughing here. Tears are streaming down my face. What an awesome kid! Thank you for sharing that one.

But you 'push' your children to follow their passions, what will they have to rebel against? Go for a traditional job out of spite?

I've learned the hard way to parent the child I have, not give him what I wish my parents gave me...

Of course we want our chilren to be happy and self supporting and self respecting. Right now I'm reading 'Flow' by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in hopes of being able to figure out what, if anything, I can do to encourage my child to grow up happy.

But I do like hearing about these non-traditional paths. At 3, DS wanted to be a Policeman who sells CD-Rom games.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

He wants to make tall buildings and wear a hard hat in case they drop a hammer. (well, he does like climbing on things). He also wants to be a rockstar, but I don't think he knows that's a job. Guess they're not really that out there. So, I'll play along and think of some fun jobs that fits my son's skills.
*he likes chasing & tackling, so he could be a alligator wrestler
*he makes up languages & talks about an imaginary giant, so, maybe a UFO hunter
*he likes beautiful people, nice cars, he has good taste and likes bossing people around, so, maybe a film director
*everyone else guesses football player or politician. I'll love him no matter what.

IMHO I'm googling the point of a good education and a good upbringing and I'm leaning towards believing the point is that it teaches them how to learn things and how to make decisions. I guess I'm front-loAding whatever influence I have and after a while they'll be adults making their own choices. Hopefully after a good education.