Parenting tips: Here's how to support your children, decide their career wisely

When it comes to the career choices of their children, it is difficult for parents to be objective most times as they assume that since they have relatively more significant life-experience, they can decide and give direction better. While it does come from a place of love and care, parents need to understand that the world and careers, for that matter, continuously keeps evolving.

Parents play an instrumental role in their children's career development and their role has become more pronounced given these times where students' problems have been compounded because of the pandemic and economic upheaval. The dynamic educational and job landscape is another determining factor molding students' career choices.

In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Sudarshan Vig, Co-Founder and CEO of MerlinWand, suggested, “The support system that parents form should not be used to decide careers of children, ever. It should be supporting them and giving the children the freedom to choose their own careers, however outlandish or immature it may appear at the moment. The support can be more in the form of advice so the child can be setup for success in the career chosen and even if there’s failure, helping the children move on and helping them make further decisions is where the parents can be very helpful.”

Pointing out at the few notes that he often reiterates to parents, Rahul Subramanium, Co-Founder of Athena Education, advised, “Be present in your child’s journey toward excellence, support their passions and aspirations. Don’t compare your child with Sharma ji ka beta. All children have their own unique path and brand, so help them discover it and let it shine through. Also, listen to their problems and try to come up with solutions together. Finally, parents, you must share stories of your failures and tell your child that it's okay to fall, while nonetheless emphasizing the importance of learning from these setbacks to make them stronger.”

Roopali Birman, Head of Counselling at iSchoolConnect, recommended, “Parents can help their kids make career selections without being overbearing. They may intentionally or inadvertently impact their children's career choices. Opening up the horizon of options to explore based on your child's interests and skills is the first step. The next is to help them narrow down on those choices. If vision is lacking or there are loose ends, don't depend on hearsay or conjectures, for this is the question of your child's future. Consult experts and counsellors who can give more perspective on the choices in front of your child.”

She added, “Finances play a decisive role, especially when you plan to send your child overseas for higher education. Saving for education has taken precedence over other life aspirations for parents, according to surveys done to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Indian parents' financial readiness in planning for their children's education. Don't let the opportunity pass you by; begin early with your financial planning for your child's education. To avoid painful adjustments later, diversify your corpus and make sure to account for education inflation.”