A Child's Hopes and Dreams

There is no noble or humble work, but if your child wants to pursue a career that doesn't seem to have a future, would you object?

Since most families are more affluent nowadays, many parents allow their children to stay at home without having to go out and find a job. However, there are still some children who will diligently search for a stable job, regardless of whether they like the work. Some of them will pursue their dreams, not caring about the income.

Even if we can't choose our destiny, if one day your child comes to you for advice about their future, how would you guide them to choose?

My husband and I have always held the attitude that we want our children to do what they love. So we have never instilled any ideas in our child about becoming a doctor, lawyer, or public official in the future. But one day, my husband suddenly encouraged our child to become a lawyer. When I asked him why, he said that our child likes to argue, so he hoped to use this interest to motivate him to study hard. He even encouraged our child, saying: If you can become a lawyer, you can argue on behalf of others, and regardless of success or failure, you will have a generous income!

Since our child was about to apply for university and choose a major, I spent several months debating with him to dissuade him from his dream of becoming a lawyer. The reason I didn't want him to study law was because I knew that in reality, studying law requires memorizing specialized terms and clauses, and reading long texts is simply impossible for him, who has dyslexia. So I took him to the library to borrow some law-related books, hoping he would understand what kind of content he would face when studying law in the future, and asked him to try to memorize and understand some clauses. But unfortunately, he couldn't remember even one clause of the Basic Law, even in the Chinese version. Finally, I suggested he use his strength in "mathematics" to choose engineering, so he could successfully complete his university education, but he refused!

He wanted us to give him two years to work hard for his dream of becoming a YouTuber. As the saying goes, "you don't know pain until the needle pricks your flesh." Even usually open-minded and reasonable parents can suddenly become unreasonable. Because experience tells us that this dream is a gamble even harder than winning the lottery. Even though we understand that he is at a muddled age, we still don't want our child to waste these precious two years.

People often offer advice or judgments to others based on their own experiences, without truly putting themselves in the shoes of the person concerned to consider feasible solutions. Years of being flattened by reality dull our edges, and facing heavy economic pressure can make you disheartened and afraid to pursue any dreams. Dreams are a child's natural gift, a precious value of youth, but unfortunately, not many people care about it.

Now, you must be wondering what the final outcome was? Our child was very obedient and chose engineering, which was easier to complete. We also equipped him with all the necessary equipment for a YouTuber to pursue his dream in his free time. But unfortunately, he only studied at university for two and a half years before returning to Hong Kong and staying at home for over two years due to illness. During this two-year treatment period, he self-taught various drawing techniques on the computer for another dream of his - drawing, and successfully found a job he loved - as an illustrator.