12-26-2015, 09:09 AM
dfrecore Wrote:I would suggest that he gets a job, preferably a really crappy one, so he can find out for himself that this is not a great life plan, and then start to figure out some better options. There's nothing quite so motivating as finding out what you DON'T want to do, to get you moving in another direction.
This can backfire on you. My (then 20) son took a warehouse job and I thought "great! He can pay off his car and see how hard it is to work 40 hours...etc." he came home and told me he was going to earn $24/hour. He just finished his first year and "loves" this job. He has way too much money for a kid his age and is in no way interested in returning to school. The problem du jour is helping him plan to move up in this company or into a less-physically demanding position, but the point is that even though we have all of this in our brain, at the end of the day, our kids make their own choices. My son's choice -imo- isn't the best, but it's also not immoral, unethical, irresponsible- in fact, he works for a great company. It's not what "I" saw for him, but how many of us are doing what our parents thought was in our best interests as a young person? Not me.