It is my strong belief that parents should neither impose their wishes over their children in choosing careers for them nor become narcissists in their interests during the selection of their careers. Nowadays many parents start dreaming about the careers of their children in health sciences and engineering even years before the time they have to choose careers on their own and they even turn a deaf ear to the aspirations of their children. The constant pressure to live up to the expectations of parents takes a heavy toll of the mental health of the children. Overstrained with the pressure to excel in a field in which one may have no interest hinders the true potential of the child. I believe without a shadow of doubt that parents should allow their children to make their own choices instead of imposing their own choices on the careers of their children. Now children are not only smart but also intelligent enough to make their own choices and decisions. As for students, one must choose a career that one wants to hound only with due conscientiousness. Primarily, Children should be given the right to choose their careers because they have a right to live and change their dreams into realities. Children can only know their interests and abilities better than anyone else. They know their subjects and areas of interest and thus, can select their careers effectively. If a child possess special interest or talent in any particular field of academics, better to leave it to him/her to choose a career of his/her own choice knowing that he/she is mature enough to take the decisions and he/she is definitely going to select a finest career that suits his/her interests and wishes. In case he/she fails to achieve it, he/she himself is responsible for it and can’t blame anyone else. This is the way to make children more responsible, accountable and answerable.
Secondly, When the parents force their children to choose the career according to their own wishes, most of the times the end-result of this is the lack of motivation and determination among children which eventually leads to the end of their enthusiasm for achieving their desired goals because it is very challenging to spend the life struggling in a field that you are not interested in and believe me your child finds himself in a locked cage where he/she is provided everything that he demands except freedom to choose career of his/ her own choice. Due to the lack of interest in that field, your child will not be able to do good because the dearth of interest makes it quite bewildering to execute the things you need to do each day. It can leave your child feeling nonchalant, and demotivated to do much of anything at all and in the end your child has to face nothing but a shameful failure and you will be wholly and solely responsible for it. This will lead to shattering of child’s dreams in front of your eyes which according to me is a very painful, worst and a gut-wrenching scene ever in parent’s life. Finally, after tolerating lots of mental tortures from the parents because of their enforcement in doing something that he didn’t wanted to do and was beyond his interests, this youngster either gets attacked by a silent killer called depression as he doesn’t dare to see his/her dreams that he/she planned for several years getting shattered just in few hours and in most of the cases even suicidal thoughts gradually begin to arise in the mind of this adolescent which makes him/her more aggressive. Even many times there is not the peaceful and calm ending because his/her thoughts were ignored, his/her interests were neglected and he/she was forcibly given the tag of a doctor, an engineer or anything else which compelled him to take belligerent steps. It all ends up devastating the life and career of that youngster who used to be a shining star during his time. In conclusion I want to convey a message that doesn’t compel your child to select a career in which he/she is not interested or comfortable because at the end the results are going be very harsh. No matter how much you insist your child to go in a particular stream but the results will only end up in failures, anxieties and unhealthy family relations. It is outrageous that parents can’t think anything wrong for their children but at least they can give their children a chance to live for their own dreams and touch the skies of success. Have faith in your children and if you really expect something extraordinary from them, Let them fly in the world of their own interests and don’t even try to coerce them for entering in the career or profession which does not match their interests and desires.
(The author is a freelancer. Views are his own)
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