Feedback welcome: on parenting

[threadwalker]

My current question:

I see a ton of teens getting out of high school with no idea what to do with their lives. They hate school, so they don't go to college. Or they go to Junior College and putter around there for 10 years or so. To me, they appear directionless and with no drive to do anything with their lives.

I want my kids to pick a career path or vocation, regardless whether it involved college (although I prefer them to go to college). I want them to grow up, move out, and be big people in the big-people world. How do I get my kids to choose a life path that doens't involve laying on my sofa watching TV or plugging into computer games and guzzling Purple Flrup(1)?

All thoughts and feedback welcome. Feel free to ramble. You don't need to be a parent to have an opinion or insights.

Later I'll post what I've already started doing. I suspect the soft-fuzzy folks who prefer to solve family conflict with cookies and hugs will think of my house as being run by the Boot-Camp Mom from Hell.

(1) Jimmy Neutron reference.

Comments

[ysabella-dolfin.livejournal.com]

The bottom line is, you have to get them to go to college or vocational FAR away. All my friends had older kids when I had Mike. Their kids are expected to get a bare minimum of a 3.0 so they can get into a decent college, then starting their Jr. year of high school, they pick a bunch of colleges, so check them out all summer, then send out all of the stuff senior year. They spend one summer loafing after they graduate and then WHAM, moved into a dorm. They learn to live independantly in those four years and trust me, they don't WANT to come back home.