Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion What do they want to be ?

I asked DS3 what he wanted to be when he grew up - he said, "I just don't know, mama". I said that that was a good answer and he had lots of time to decide.

OH, and afterwards he also said that he "wanted to be like dada" - so I asked him "you mean, like an astrophysicist?" and he said, "No, like have his beard and everything."

So there's that. Beard. Check.

ElizabethN, my DH is a well-respected research materials scientist at a Fortune 25 Tech company. I have a broader background even than that, having done everything from in vivo electro-analytical chemistry and neuroanatomy to environmental biophysics and elemental analysis, structure-activity modeling, and natural products isolation. She kind of grew up trailing me in the lab, so she has seen cardiac pharmacology, tissue culture, molecular biology, and natural products isolation up close and personal. Oh, and x-ray diffraction and surface methods, following dad. She's been reading dad's C&E News and other trade mags since she was about eight. Immersion environment, basically. LOL.

She's reluctant to enter one of the physical sciences because she feels that is just "doing what mom and dad do." Adolescent rebellion, basically.

We also feel that one of the cross-disciplinary sciences (as opposed to their engineering brethren) is likely to be a better fit for her in the long run because of the polymath issue. The alternative is to do something that pays well enough to support a LOT of intense hobbies.

This is the side of being a polymath that is VERY hard. I realize that comes off as smug and whiny in some places, which is why I only say it here-- but DD is truly struggling with not being able to do EVERYTHING on her interest list. Oh, and write the great American novel in her free time while she moonlights with a jazz trio on her free evenings.

Well, in that case, she doesn't need my advice. I'll put in my plug for patent law, though. It also has the advantage that you don't need a lab, and lots of practitioners work from home, which might be safer for her. You can be pretty technologically broad if you want, or you can focus in on a narrower area. And it does pay well enough to support hobbies. It doesn't seem to have been hit nearly as hard by the oversupply of lawyers - there still aren't very many lawyers with science degrees (which you need to sit for the patent bar).

Don't think DS14 really knows what he wants, except to play computer games. When he was young he almost obsessively loved animals and is really enjoying Biology. My take on it is he will probably end up in the math/computer science/engineering side of things.

Ds9 want to be a writer...and he is pretty good at acting so I could see him as a writer/actor.

DD9 wants to be...let's see...a teacher, writer, artist, and ornithologist. She changes her mind a lot.

DS5 wants to be an ocean scientist and explore the Marianas Trench in a submersible (this ambition has remained unchanged since age 4).

DD11 wants to be an artist and DS9 wants to marry someone who will support him so he can do whatever he feels like doing.

A question I had even before this post is when and how parents should try to change career goals of their children that they find unrealistic. A 6yo is supposed to be unrealistic, but what about a 16yo? Of course, parents can give well-meaning career advice that turns out to be bad.

My feeling, having a 14yo who is entering college, is that by the time it seems appropriate to be offering such advice or steering, kids are generally not really open to a whole lot that comes from Mom or Dad.

Aside from the financial backing to pursue whatever they like. THAT, they still seem to welcome just fine.

Probably the same light-handed strategy talked about before. If you want your kid to consider one option that you think they'd like or a more self-supportive version of an existing interest, scatter it in front of them. A little trickier than books for an elementary age kid, I'd think scattering here would be giving them an opportunity to talk to someone interesting in the field you'd like them to consider.,