In my footsteps?

A person who should know why put this double-barreled question to me the other day: Why do you think most people would not want their children to choose the same work? Would you?

Of course, I want my children to follow in my footsteps –raising kids has the biggest impact on all of our tomorrows and whatever it took, I would go through all those trials and tribulations again.

My boys know how much I’m looking forward to my grandchildren, so they understand how important it is to train for work that offers a living wage.

Oh, maybe the asker was really talking about jobs, and wanted to know if I would choose to earn my living the same way.

Is it true most people would not want their children to follow in their career footsteps?

According to a 2005 study, more than half the physicians surveyed don’t want their kids to follow them careerwise, and the same is true of accountants. In a Korn-Ferry survey of business executives, more than half said they would choose a different field, and a whopping 88 per cent of them expect to make a major career change before retirement.

It seems some very specialized career niches, however, are extremely satisfying. Seventy-nine per cent of research graduates in a survey conducted by the American Psychology Association would do it all again. This, and other questions, was asked of librarians (“special� librarians, who work in libraries that are not used for academic purposes) and the vast majority of them would choose it again, in spite of the low pay.

When I was growing up, teachers were fond of telling us that we wouldn’t need to work as hard as they. It was expected the workweek would become just four, or even three, days long! Those of us who have a bunch more to do than earn a living are probably a bit disappointed about that.

Then, too, career choices are multiplying, with possibly as many as 30 per cent more occupations available to workers than there were in 1980. A lot of change is caused by the way computers have become a tool in almost every kind of work. And, some of the jobs open 30 years ago simply don’t exist anymore. I imagine many people recognize the need for their offspring to learn computer skills.

When my oldest son became a teenager, “Choose Your Own Adventure� books were popular and we enjoyed creating more different plots than those contained in the books – early interactive story lines. My youngest toys with interactive video games which do about the same thing. In fact, the latest “Writers’ Handbook� devotes a section to writing video games, the new popular novel.

There has been so much technological change in the past decades, many people are recognizing the work we do today may not be part of the scheme of things next week, let alone when the children are grown.