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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DH and I are both Ivy grads, and this is also generally our large circle of friends in real life and from Facebook, etc.

A good portion of our friends have been posting the early acceptances for their kids to similar top 20 schools.

Our son is a good student but probably only in the top 30% of his class. A B+ student in Regular classes, low 600s SATs. He has always loved the water and really loved some cruises we have gone on, where as a kid he met the captains, etc. He wants to go into shipping operations and attend a Maritime Academy.

He has been accepted into Maine and Massachusetts Maritime Academies and will be deciding between them.

My parents and in-laws are not happy about this, they keep heaving heavy sighs like for all their hard work their grandson is not going to be a King on Wall Street and is going to be killed by pirates. I have also been fastidiously avoiding FB and friends with the news because I just feel like all our friends are going to look at each other knowingly and be like "well I guess we know how their kid turned out."

Please kick my ass. I sorely need an ass-kicking to snap myself out of this feeling like our kid made a left turn into nowhere.[/quote]

omg.  Your son sounds awesome.

DH and I are both Harvard Law grads, (so, run in rather academically oriented circles) and it does feel like we are in some elite bubble where everyone I know wants their kid to be some amazing neurosurgeon or Wall St. tycoon.  What's wrong with being a nurse, or a dental assistant?  What about quality of life?  And, btw, how will you put food on the table with the Yale Gender Studies degree? (not picking specifically on Yale or gender studies, but you get the point).

And how many of these kids ricochet back into their parents' homes after graduation?  We've been seeing a bit of that; the never-ending fledgling.

You've got to look at the individual.  I'm hoping one of my kids goes into some sort of wilderness-related field and I don't care if it's academic or not; that kid needs to be outside and move, not be stuck behind a desk even though she's an outstanding student.

BTW my brother drives trains.  He's always loved trains, and dropped his other career to do it.  Wasn't hired at the first railroad because he came off as too educated; when he applied for the second railroad he interviewed in jeans and got the job.  He's 54 now; still loves his job.[/quote]

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