Although I primarily would label myself as a stay-at-home mom, I actually have another job. The job that I have is one that I didn’t even know existed when I was in college, let alone in high school.
As a matter-of-fact, I didn’t know about a lot of career choices while I was in high school, thinking ahead to what might be best for me and my future. I suspect that a lot of that has to do with the fact that I just wasn’t exposed to many career choices.
Sure, we were pushed in our high school classes that we should be planning to head off to college, but there was never much of a push in whatever direction we should go.
Without much of a plan or idea of the various careers out there, and feeling like I wasn’t exceptional in any one area, but good in lots of areas, I headed into the field that many people I knew went into — elementary education. (I also had several friends who all went into Biology or Chemistry in order to go to medical school. In the end, only one of them actually went on to medical school.)
I can’t help but wonder now — did we just not know that there was a big world out there, with careers that we never even knew existed? What might we have done if we had more exposure to the world?
As for me, I taught for a few years after college. I then ended up deciding to stay home with my kids after a particularly bad teaching experience, coupled with finding out that our oldest son has Autism. It was shortly after that when I actually went back to school and picked up a Master’s Degree in Special Education, but that was mostly to be able to be the best advocate I could be for my kids. Who knew that it would come in so handy later?
As for that career that I never even knew existed — I work a few hours a week as an independent contractor through my state’s Early Intervention Services. I work with kids under the age of three with delays or disabilities, and I love it. It works for our family because of a flexible schedule, and what other job allows you to be in the room the very first time a little girl says “Mama,” while you watch her Mother’s eyes fill with tears?
The moral of this story? Expose your kids to many, many careers! Take them into the world and let them take it in. Encourage them to explore where their passion lies, and see where it can lead them. But, also, lead them to other things to explore. Their perfect future career is out there, and they may not even know it’s a career that’s out there.
If you had to guess today, what do you think your child might do as a future career? What did you dream of being when you were young?
Angie can be found writing about faith, family, household management, and trying to live a little more simply and greener at Many Little Blessings.
photo by chelsey paul photography
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This was a great post! My oldest wants to go into massage therapy and natural health, and DD#2 wants a career in art. DD#3 at 3.5 years old, wants to be a mommy.
Angie,
I taught a Career Exploration class a few times at my home school co-op. I wrote about it in an article that can be read at Crosswalk.com
Pursuing Their Dreams
That class helped my oldest daughter decide to study accounting in college. I also had her work as a bookkeeper for one of my small business clients and shadow several CPAs.
My younger daughter is thinking about graphic design or perhaps marketing.
Carol Topp, CPA
Great post Angie! This is so important. When I was growing up, the emphasis was college prep classes, but not much on what you would do afterward. There are so many opportunities today.
I absolutely agree about exploring the different careers out there as part of our homeschooling journey. When I was growing up my experience of the job market consisted of understanding a few jobs: doctor, nurse, receptionist, pharmacist, librarian, shop keeper, waitress, bank clerk, teacher, miner, steel worker, train driver, bus driver, policeman, clergyman. What basis is that to choose a career from? Not a very good one! I’m still trying to decide what I’ll do when I grow up :-)
In fact when I visited a branch of the Federal Reserve Bank last week on a homeschool field trip my biggest question was, “What jobs do people do here?” We’d not have been told if I’d not asked, which really, when you think about it, is pretty appalling.
Thanks for the post :-)
Great post! I help homeschoolers figure out & prepare for post-high school options. Who even knew that was a career? So much about real life preparation is about becoming alert to what others need, whether in your own family (which is where my career started) or out there.
Experimenting with it in high school is absolutely vital!
I talk about it mostly at my non-blogger blog: http://www.countdown2college.net/blog
Great post! I help homeschoolers explore and prepare for all kinds of post-high school options (who even knew that would be a career?). So much of pursuing a career is about becoming alert to others’ needs, whether in your own family (which is where my career started) or out there.
Experimenting with it in high school is absolutely vital!