Alan & Brenda Leonard

10/8/03 07:23:

> Why is it that parents don't want their kids to pursue the same career? My
> mom was very artistic in school, and won a scholarship to a prestigious art
> school in L.A. (For stupidly dysfunctional family reasons, she wasn't
> permitted to accept.) Mom *hated* my sister's passion for both painting and
> ballet, and was furious when I changed majors from advertising to graphic
> design. Maybe that Albert Brooks movie, "Mother," holds the answer -- the
> frustration of a failed or aborted career makes a parent so jealous they
> can't support their child in the same career?


Or maybe, because we've been there, we can see all the problems with that
career, and all the pitfalls on the way. The mothering instinct makes us
want to protect our children from having to deal with the same garbage we
did.

I'm a musician, and it's difficult to bite my tongue when my son dreams of
being an organist, a concert pianist, a choir boy. For heaven's sake, kid,
pick a career with a little more money in it!

brenda