If your child asks, "Why do you work, daddy?" How would you answer?
My daughter has not asked me this question… yet. But some of my friends have gone through this. One friend used to tell me that she had to say it with great care so that she didn’t give the impression that she worked because of the money.
What about you? Having a tough time finding the best answer?
Maybe this could shed some light on you. There’s a post on The Wall Street Journal about how you tell your kids about your work: do you tell them you do it out of fulfillment or just purely for the paycheck.
The post draws many comments from readers. But sadly, most of them don’t enjoy what they are doing. But I like this comment the most:
"What’s wrong with being in a heavy metal band if that’s what makes you happy, you are not harming yourself or anyone else, and you can eat? I wish I had ignored my mom when she made me study engineering so that I would have a lucrative career. Yes, I make good money, drive a fancy car, and have the grad school education, but I’m miserable. All the material things that make up my lifestyle are there to compensate for the fact that I’m unhappy 15 hours a day. I honestly think that if I had followed my dreams when I was a teenager, I would be much happier. Broke yes , but happy. But since I’ve become so used to these luxuries in life, it’s too hard to go back. I don’t have any children, nor do I plan on having children, but for the ones in my life, I will always advise them to follow their dreams while they are young, energetic, and naive enough to believe in themselves. I would bet anything that their dreams will come true . . ."
I can’t agree more with her. She speaks my mind. Ask yourself this: Do you want your child to come and tell you this one day?
I know I don’t.