When to talk to your child about career

I don’t know if you guys are aware, but your cute little poppets are going to morph into hairy, sweaty, opinionated teenagers eventually. And, besides for all the hair and body odour, the opinionated part will probably be the thing that irks you the most.

For me and my hairy teen, the biggest debate has been around career. I mean, if the kid could make a living off of playing XBox games, he would gladly do so. But alas, this option (even though its a real career nogals) is not available to him right now.

We’ve toyed around with a bunch of different career options and we honestly still have not figured out what his “one” is. But it kinda made me realise that I should have delved deeper into this convo while he was still at high school.

In fact, there are a bunch of conversations that should take place while your kid is still of school going age. Don’t be like me. Me thought that my boy was too young to have big conversations about his future. Me protected him from all the harsh elements of the world a bit toooooo much. Me raised him in a bubble.

Me regrets it.

If I had a time machine I would totes go back a couple of years, talk about career and “how do you plan to make money one day” more in depth.

The other mind blowing fact (hold on to your pants, this could get messy) is that: what YOU want for your child may not be what THEY want for themselves. Like, I totes want my child to be a successful graphic designer/creative director/multimedia animator. He loves art. I love all things digital. Seems like the best thing for me him.

I had to let go of MY ideal and, instead, try to learn how to listen to his vision for his own life.

At the end of the day, friends, if you have a relationship with God, it’s never too early to lean on the Lord with regards to your child’s future/career. In fact, I’ve already begun to coax Karis into speaking to God and asking Him to reveal what He wants her to do.

My prayer is that Gods plan for her life becomes her focus and goal. Teaching my child how to dream with God and plan with Him, is probably a better solution than, say, forcing him to do graphic design because I need someone to design the graphics for my blog. *cough*

I mean, figuratively speaking.

Anyways, my advice to moms with youngs kids is: Unpack your child’s interests and strengths, at a young age, and allow them to take the lead wrt their future careers and goals. Pray for wisdom. Pray for clever ways to help gently coax them towards their destiny, without overstepping. Pray for your ego to be put aside, and for God’s will to be prevalent.

And most importantly, pray for patience, because you’re definitely going to need it.