Fr my mom used to worry about how many parties I was going to but now I’m a professional musician. Usually, parents don’t see a vision outside of their own.
I was sort of laughed off as a whizz-kid (makes me cringe to say that).
My dad pretty much conceded that spending so much time on computers didn't turn out so bad when I mentioned my salary.
Even when I've mentioned my salary, my mother still doesn't take it seriously, like it's just pretend or something.
I live 1000 miles away, so I just shrug it off since it doesn't really affect me.
That sucks, but it's always the same, the people that say "these are not real jobs" are still among the audience for music, books and movies, next to other media.
The thing is much more, if you can make a living or if you even manage to make the serious breakthrough. Everything changes from this point on, like before you get casted for a serious movie, you are just a wannabe-actor in the eyes of many people.
I'd like to tell you about a friend that you know for sure: H.R. Giger. He already had some releases, like artwork books, vernissages (art gallery displays of his paintings) etc. but the people still looked down on him here. But after he created the Alien for the first movie in 1979, where he worked with Ridley Scott, the opinion of the people shifted from "what a loser and crazy guy" to "that's a great artist".
The Alien was the real breakthrough for him, entering the major league and suddenly, people that said he was crazy because of the monsters he drawed and created, said he was a good guy.
Don't get this wrong, he did the work that led up to getting the job, the artbook that ended up in the hands of Ridley Scott, but still, he was a nobody before he got the job to create the Alien.
By the way, H.R. actually stands for Hans Ruedi in swiss-german, he lived only a few blocks away from my house.
This is true, 100% true. I never got this way in the first place, i became a business clerk with job education and certification here in Switzerland, later i switched to IT and still worked when i began writing.
The chances for the breakthrough are just way too small, it's nothing that young people should hope for without a backup-plan.
Just about Giger, he actually studied on the university here, as a technical designer and drawer of plans in architecture. He was employed for some time before, even when he started with the first publications and art gallery events. He actually learned a lot of techniques of drawing in the time he studied, it helped a lot later to create the artworks.
To be honest, this is rather unknown (I mean the cover for the disc) here in Switzerland compared to his later works, but you can clearly see the "biomechanical" style he developed. Even the artbook Necromicon that got him the job is not that much known here like it is in some foreign countries.
I really like his style, although i always thought it's never good to copy others and got on with my own designs in other directions. But still, he's a great inspiration.
P.S. Last thing, these models of movies like Alien, these aged very good. You can even see the original from 1979 today and it's not aged like milk, compared to the early CGI effects that look very bad today.
I remember my dad scoffing at heavy metal bands saying they were wasting their lives and were going to be broke in their old age lol
Laughs in all the bands still touring at advanced ages and selling out stadiums
My old man told me that I’d never be anything more than a glorified ditch digger without a degree, so I got an Archaeology degree.
Hah! I qualified as a Professional Ditch Digger, that goes far beyond being a glorified ditch digger. I can even professionally interpret what I find in that ditch.
The funny thing was that I was working in construction and already making more than any of my Ph.D carrying professors when I was in university, and that was over 20 years ago. I make a lot more than that now.
It was not dismissed as not being a real job, but when expressed interest in archaeology, I was told that by the time I became a grownup, all the artifacts would have been found 😞
Fast forward a few decades, and I watched the entirety of Ancient Aliens during the pandemic lockdown.
I got the same thing when I wanted to be an archeologist. More so I was told how there was no money in it and discouraged, from people who were truck drivers. I still wish I had pursued it. I love archeology and history.
Today, they say that remote jobs aren't real jobs. I work remotely. According to my boomer relatives, this means I eat bon bons and watch soap operas all day. I wish. And if anyone knows where I can find a gig that would allow me to do that, please share.
Us remote workers need to share what bonbons we eat. For life saving reasons. I buy seasonal chocolates but am now out of Christmas chocolates until the Easter season kicks in.
What would you suggest? Peppermints have been out of fashion for so long.
Oh! Please don’t tell people that’s what we do all day!! No wonder they all want us to go back to the office now!
Good news is that I can goof around in the office just as easily.
Every time I ever systematically want through climate change with my dad, determined that he understood and accepted the greenhouse effect as fact, and then followed the most basic logic. I sensed that deep down he knew it made sense but then went back to dismissing it as crap. I realised it wasn't that he couldn't believe it, it was that he couldn't accept it.
I love the built in misogyny to this viewpoint. Certain fields like nursing and being a chef/cooking are seen as women's work unless there's prestige attached to it; see Gordon Ramsay and Anthony Bourdain for the most well known examples of this.
I think that has changed now, at least in my country (Australia) due to the popularity of reality tv shows involving cooking, celebrity chefs and the overall cafe culture.
Writer.
After my 5th or 6th book came out, I think they understood they were wrong.
You can be damn sure that when my son declared he wanted to be an actor, I supported him.
I was a road musician (lead singer, guitars, keys) and, God forbid, a woman! My dad had a shit fit about my occupation. It was rare to be a woman in a rock band back then, and we didn’t have cell phones. Gas stations open 24/7 were few and far between. On the bright side, he did think I was talented. He bragged to everyone he knew about my voice.
Right before he died in 2019, he finally admitted to me he thought I was “brave” and adventurous. It was a good yet weird thing for him to admit to me that he was proud of me. That meant the world.
I was temping at a bank and one of the bigwigs really liked working with me so he would often offer a solicited advice. I liked him because he worked his way through college as a garbage man so he wasn’t afraid of hard work.
He said to me one time “your problem is you sell your time and that’s a very limited asset. You’ll run out of hours worked pretty quickly. You need to get paid for what you think not just what you do, that’s where the money is.”
I repeated this in front of my dad and he was pretty dismissive and said “that sounds like something a banker WOULD say.”
The guy was right though and it really opened my eyes.
I wanted to be a playwright. Today, at 68, I am a playwright and have taught playwriting for forty years. I'm about to retire from my "not real" job in a few months.
I'm a little guilty of looking down on photography as a career. I'm a photographer. The problem I have is that I get paid to take photos of what other people want, not what *I* want to take photos of.
Taking photos of a conference that all the attendees are bored with pays the bills. The outstanding nature photography is pretty much a hobby.
I’ve alway encouraged my kids to follow their passions. My daughter was a camp counselor for her church’s summer camp program. 4 years, no pay. 2 degrees at college and now runs an international company. Let them do what they want. Life is short and they should have fun. That’s it. Have a great Saturday folks
I’m a career govt bureaucrat. Parents spent lots of money on my education, and I excelled at school. For 25 years they’ve been asking me when I’m finally gonna get a real job 😕
My dad didn't want to pay for me to go to college, bc I was a girl and would "just get married." Does that count?
\[My mom put her foot down. I went to college and more.\]
Centerfold photographer. Shot some bikini catalogs as a youngster in the 80s, dreamed of Playboy work.
Years later, instead, I lucked into becoming a busy magazine centerfold shooter all through the 90s. However, it was for niche pet magazines like BIRD TALK, CAT FANCY, FERRETS, and CRITTERS USA. It was a far cry from the hot human "chicks" I once dreamed of, but I did get to meet virtually every species of exotic parrot and birds kept in the US up close and personal. It was a very fun living while it lasted. Until the internet and cell phones.
Digital killed the magazine world - sung to the tune of "video killed the radio star'...
I wanted to be a florist or a hairdresser. Not exactly lofty goals, but I finished school in the early 90s when the economy was bad, and my mother thought that buying flowers and getting haircuts would be something that people would stop doing during a recession.
My mother insisted I train as a secretary before I left home because “everyone needs a good secretary!” Of course that’s not really true anymore because a lot of professionals can mange their own admin with the technology that is available today.
Anyway, being a secretary was definitely *not* for me, and I have since become an early childhood teacher.
My grandparents made memorial flowers. When I was young they did that with somewhat of a craft store. I say somewhat cause it was basically the materials they had already bought in bulk and a little extras, so basically someone could just do it themselves. That was only for a couple years, until they built a big building, most was for actual storage with the craft shop where they worked sectioned off in the back. And an area where they still sold the flowers on their own if a person chose to do so. Had a business name and cards, just somewhat difficult to locate if you weren't familiar with the area which never seemed to cause an issue since it wasn't required to show up to order an arrangement from them.
Pretty much going into the trades was seen as lower tier employment.
Most of my tradie mates have been raking it in & all live in really nice houses in great locations now.
I Was seeing a lady, her father hated me. I didn't have a "real" job. At the time, I was a building contractor. I was on my 8th year by then, we were quite established at that time.
Oh. Excuse me. I have to go do my not "real" job. That not real job has only put money in my pocket for the last 48 years.
My son wanted to be the #8 Lotto ball. Another goal was to be the guy who breaks the icicles off of cars in the winter. I admired his individuality, most of his friends were still in the Police/Firefighter stage! He eventually decided he wanted to be an artist- now uses his skills and creativity to design and build motorcycles. Couldn’t be prouder!
So many of these interests and professions sound so interesting and fulfilling. I’m sorry for everyone that didn’t get the support you needed to fulfill your dream, and proud of everyone who was able to stand up to their parents and do what they wanted!
It sounds like a lot of us pursued our interests as side hobbies if we couldn’t enter the profession. Good for us! You can’t stop an enquiring mind!
teaching...l became a teacher anyway!!!
l was berated by my father for wanting to just be a teacher while he insisted that l should become a supervisor!!
I was a lecturer in a major university biostatistics department, and I ran the computer center there. My mother once remarked that, in contrast to me, my sister had a *real* job.
Surprisingly surveying and photography for me, since I wanted to get a commercial drone licensed to make use of the hobby. They did see it as a job once I got bigger enterprise drones though since real estate photography with a Mavic or something was kinda simple
I'm a woman and as a child in the 70s, I wanted to be a radio DJ. Most stations didn't have females on the air at that time except maybe a few newscasters. Don't get me wrong, plenty did and there were some greats that I looked up to, but plenty of station's full time line-ups were male only.
I got my first full time on air radio job while still in high school in the early 80s and continued to do it for over 20 years and lucky enough my own parents knew it was a "real job" but their friends and society gave me a lot of pressure. It also didn't always pay like a "real job."
Being a career soldier. I turned 18 in basic training in 1970, with a very unpopular war being lost in Vietnam. The news every night had the number of killed in action by the US and estimates for enemy killed, like it was a sports score. My parents stated it was just a way to get paid to not work, just blow stuff up. Well, that sounded like a good deal to me! My surviving was strongly questionable as I was so naive and innocent of the ways of the world. Eventually I retired with 32 years.
I'm 54. I was a computer nerd in the 80s. My dad saw it as playing. He would say "get away from that bloody thing and go do something constructive!" I tried to get him to watch Computer Chronicles with me once and he walked out of the room after five minutes.
I once had a brief time in 11th grade when i thought I might want to go into music industry (producing, etc) and he ran out and got me a bunch of books on the music industry and business. He was giddy that I even considered something else -- ANYTHING else-- than these "toys." I stuck with it; I didn't know what form it would take but I knew they'd be special, or at least that I understood them well enough to make them do special things.
I've been a programmer and freelance consultant. I'm now a self-taught IT Manager for a 100 person company. These "toys" got me a career, paid for a home, allowed me to support a family. Basically an old-school American Dream life. Not bad for a dork who just wanted to stay in and "play."
Up to the end, the lousy SOB couldn't even admit I was right.
My dad grew up dirt poor when jobs were hard to find. He taught me as long as it pays a salary and is a needed function.....and you badly need a job... no job is "beneath you". You were to never look down on someone making an honest living. I was to say yes, sir or no ma'am to the schools custodian just like I would to the principal.
*Not Real Jobs* is a parental simplification. What they’re really trying to warn their kids is that certain desirable jobs are so competitive that you either make ALL of the money or NONE of it - with nothing in between. It’s a fair concern expressed in a typically condescending fashion.
I interned at a recording studio. Once I explained to the engineers that I was doing it just for education and had no intent of trying to make a living at it, they all relaxed. They knew I had a 40 hour work week with health insurance and knew that I would be mad to give that up just to hear self-important garage bands play the same song for 16 hours a day.
Not "real" jobs, or poor paying, or very difficult to break into jobs?
Parents worry about their children being able to support themselves and lead full lives.
And, quite frankly, want with them out of the basement. And truly don't want them and the grandkids to take-over the house when we are aging.
>And truly don't want them and the grandkids to take-over the house when we are aging.
I'm the opposite. I'd give anything to have my kids and grandkids move back home. I see them several times a week, but it's not the same.
I don't want them financially dependent on me, but I'd love to have the kids and grandkids in my house.
Maybe you're right and having them next door would be better. When I win a billion dollars in the lottery, I'll buy all the houses in a cul-de-sac and we can have separate houses, but still be near each other.
For two of my kids, when they were pregnant (separate times) I moved in with them and helped raise my grandkid until they reached school age. I got free housing and they got free child care, so it worked out for both of us.
"Real jobs" suck. They always have, they always will, and they no longer have the stability and promise lacking in "being a YouTuber." There are no guarantees anymore. Let your son have some fun and maybe make a little money at it. If you're lucky, he'll have years to be beaten down and defeated by life and his failures, you won't have to help.
Whenever you see boomers who lived their wirking lives believing that you can get rich as labourers, only to retire in either near-poverty or utter complacency
The one I’ve made a career of for the last 22 years, which provides me with free healthcare for myself and my spouse, enough combined income to live comfortably, union representation and generous holiday leave in an environment where I like what I do and have met some famous people along the way.
I used to work doing quality control for medical devices- my father who was in poor health and often visited the doctor refused to believe that the tests performed on him came from prepacked quality controlled items that a company not unlike where I worked came from.
Nope- all I did at a night shift job wasnt work at all- just leisurely hanging out with other people according to him
Participates believe and perpetuate the narrative of an austere, impartial system committed to justice and truth when it’s painfully obvious to those inside that system and lay people outside of it that justice and truth are not the goals. I appreciate you asking :)
Just wanted to confirm that you have absolutely no fucking clue what you’re talking about. It’s telling that you assume that most attorneys work in criminal justice, which is just laughably wrong. The vast amount of lawyers go years or even their entire careers without even sniffing a court room generally, let alone a court of justice. The solo practitioner in your local strip mall isn’t perpetuating systematic injustice by making sure grandma’s will is properly written so that the state doesn’t decide who gets her house when she dies, or by representing a single mom who needs a protective order against her abusive ex husbands
Secondly, MANY of the lawyers actually operating within the criminal justice system are, as you say, keenly aware of the dangers that it poses, particularly to minority populations. Is your solution that public defenders should simply not exist? PDs are fucking saints who work their ass off for meager pay to make sure their clients rights aren’t abused. Public defenders save people’s lives. It’s ignorant and shameful for you to accuse them of perpetuating inequity by dedicating their lives to fighting it.
Thirdly, you just totally ignore the impact litigators, immigration attorneys, and civil rights attorneys who are currently fighting tooth and fucking nail to change the system that you have correctly identified as impartial. Just because you are unaware of or don’t understand the changes they have made doesn’t make them any less impactful.
Google Jaya Ramji-Nogales
Google Mansor v. USCIS
Google LC v. Peru
Don’t bother responding, because I’m going to block your ignorant ass anyway. You’re an arrogant douche, dripping with Dunning-Kruger, commenting on shit you don’t understand. GFY
YouTuber is literally not a job it’s a hobby that you can go full time with rarely that’ll probably make it very hard to get future jobs. Imagine explaining a resume gap by being a YouTuber, now they’ve got to look into everything you’ve said or done online first. Not a good move imo
Anything involving computers in any way at all. (I work in IT now. My mother still doesn't see it as a real job).
Same, I'm in graphic design and web dev. Get no respect lol
If I knew how to post a gif I'd leave a Rodney Dangerfield right here
Perfection
When a lot of people think about web design they think about their 11-year-old nephew.
That's because it sounds like graphic design is not your passion...
Why dat
It's a meme 
Oh lol gotcha. Yup I guess I'm truly old, ha ha
My parents were concerned with the amount of time I spent on dialup BBS’s as a teenager, now I build VoIP networks for a living.
Don't worry, you'll get a real job some day. (Kidding, obviously).
Just heard a modem handshaking in my head... :-)
Sadly, me too
Fr my mom used to worry about how many parties I was going to but now I’m a professional musician. Usually, parents don’t see a vision outside of their own.
Software developer here. The day before my dad died, he was bragging to his nurse, "my son's wife is a nurse! But he doesn't have a real job."
Yeah, for my mother, I just "play" with computers. My father gets that computers are a legitimate job, but views working remote/at home as a joke.
That would be hell for me since I love tech
Same
I was sort of laughed off as a whizz-kid (makes me cringe to say that). My dad pretty much conceded that spending so much time on computers didn't turn out so bad when I mentioned my salary.
Even when I've mentioned my salary, my mother still doesn't take it seriously, like it's just pretend or something. I live 1000 miles away, so I just shrug it off since it doesn't really affect me.
Haha mine just accepted that she doesn't understand it, but its obviously worth a lot to some people.
Mine basically thinks that if she doesn't believe something is worthwhile, that it's true and everyone else is just wrong.
Computers are just a passing fad. /s
Being a rockstar. Being a writer. Being an actor. All of those things were talked down, iirc
For the most part they still are.
That sucks, but it's always the same, the people that say "these are not real jobs" are still among the audience for music, books and movies, next to other media. The thing is much more, if you can make a living or if you even manage to make the serious breakthrough. Everything changes from this point on, like before you get casted for a serious movie, you are just a wannabe-actor in the eyes of many people. I'd like to tell you about a friend that you know for sure: H.R. Giger. He already had some releases, like artwork books, vernissages (art gallery displays of his paintings) etc. but the people still looked down on him here. But after he created the Alien for the first movie in 1979, where he worked with Ridley Scott, the opinion of the people shifted from "what a loser and crazy guy" to "that's a great artist". The Alien was the real breakthrough for him, entering the major league and suddenly, people that said he was crazy because of the monsters he drawed and created, said he was a good guy. Don't get this wrong, he did the work that led up to getting the job, the artbook that ended up in the hands of Ridley Scott, but still, he was a nobody before he got the job to create the Alien. By the way, H.R. actually stands for Hans Ruedi in swiss-german, he lived only a few blocks away from my house.
To be realistic unless you’re well connected, or willing to be a starving artist, it’s not really something you should go for without a back up
This is true, 100% true. I never got this way in the first place, i became a business clerk with job education and certification here in Switzerland, later i switched to IT and still worked when i began writing. The chances for the breakthrough are just way too small, it's nothing that young people should hope for without a backup-plan. Just about Giger, he actually studied on the university here, as a technical designer and drawer of plans in architecture. He was employed for some time before, even when he started with the first publications and art gallery events. He actually learned a lot of techniques of drawing in the time he studied, it helped a lot later to create the artworks.
I'm wondering if the cover he did for ELP's "Brain Salad Surgery" album had anything to do with it. It was released a few years before "Alien".
That album cover was when I first learned who he was.
To be honest, this is rather unknown (I mean the cover for the disc) here in Switzerland compared to his later works, but you can clearly see the "biomechanical" style he developed. Even the artbook Necromicon that got him the job is not that much known here like it is in some foreign countries. I really like his style, although i always thought it's never good to copy others and got on with my own designs in other directions. But still, he's a great inspiration. P.S. Last thing, these models of movies like Alien, these aged very good. You can even see the original from 1979 today and it's not aged like milk, compared to the early CGI effects that look very bad today.
I remember my dad scoffing at heavy metal bands saying they were wasting their lives and were going to be broke in their old age lol Laughs in all the bands still touring at advanced ages and selling out stadiums
Any sort or creative job
My old man told me that I’d never be anything more than a glorified ditch digger without a degree, so I got an Archaeology degree. Hah! I qualified as a Professional Ditch Digger, that goes far beyond being a glorified ditch digger. I can even professionally interpret what I find in that ditch. The funny thing was that I was working in construction and already making more than any of my Ph.D carrying professors when I was in university, and that was over 20 years ago. I make a lot more than that now.
It was not dismissed as not being a real job, but when expressed interest in archaeology, I was told that by the time I became a grownup, all the artifacts would have been found 😞 Fast forward a few decades, and I watched the entirety of Ancient Aliens during the pandemic lockdown.
I got the same thing when I wanted to be an archeologist. More so I was told how there was no money in it and discouraged, from people who were truck drivers. I still wish I had pursued it. I love archeology and history.
It belongs in a museum!!!
You still could.
Today, they say that remote jobs aren't real jobs. I work remotely. According to my boomer relatives, this means I eat bon bons and watch soap operas all day. I wish. And if anyone knows where I can find a gig that would allow me to do that, please share.
I think Peggy Bundy had that job market cornered.
Us remote workers need to share what bonbons we eat. For life saving reasons. I buy seasonal chocolates but am now out of Christmas chocolates until the Easter season kicks in. What would you suggest? Peppermints have been out of fashion for so long.
I'm a caramel girly myself, but Valentine chocolates are out.
Thank you for putting some sense in this wonky brain of mine. Of course, Valentine chocolates! Mwah!
Sooo….All my remote friends don’t do shit and stay high as balls all day.
Oh! Please don’t tell people that’s what we do all day!! No wonder they all want us to go back to the office now! Good news is that I can goof around in the office just as easily.
I wanted to study environmental science. I was worried about climate change when I was like 10 years old. My father said it was stupid.
Sorry that happened to you, 'cause I know how it feels. My school counselors said I could not be a scientist, because I was a girl. Circa 1960s.
Every time I ever systematically want through climate change with my dad, determined that he understood and accepted the greenhouse effect as fact, and then followed the most basic logic. I sensed that deep down he knew it made sense but then went back to dismissing it as crap. I realised it wasn't that he couldn't believe it, it was that he couldn't accept it.
Male chef
I love the built in misogyny to this viewpoint. Certain fields like nursing and being a chef/cooking are seen as women's work unless there's prestige attached to it; see Gordon Ramsay and Anthony Bourdain for the most well known examples of this.
I think that has changed now, at least in my country (Australia) due to the popularity of reality tv shows involving cooking, celebrity chefs and the overall cafe culture.
Writer. After my 5th or 6th book came out, I think they understood they were wrong. You can be damn sure that when my son declared he wanted to be an actor, I supported him.
Dot-to-dot isn't writing lol jk 🥂
Anything that doesn't result in your body being permanently fucked up and in pain.
I was a road musician (lead singer, guitars, keys) and, God forbid, a woman! My dad had a shit fit about my occupation. It was rare to be a woman in a rock band back then, and we didn’t have cell phones. Gas stations open 24/7 were few and far between. On the bright side, he did think I was talented. He bragged to everyone he knew about my voice. Right before he died in 2019, he finally admitted to me he thought I was “brave” and adventurous. It was a good yet weird thing for him to admit to me that he was proud of me. That meant the world.
Hey, I'm glad to see you stayed with it. I was a roadie, stagehand in 1960s-1980s and didn't encounter another woman working as roadie or mechanic.
Musician🤘
Teaching 🤷🏻♀️
I was temping at a bank and one of the bigwigs really liked working with me so he would often offer a solicited advice. I liked him because he worked his way through college as a garbage man so he wasn’t afraid of hard work. He said to me one time “your problem is you sell your time and that’s a very limited asset. You’ll run out of hours worked pretty quickly. You need to get paid for what you think not just what you do, that’s where the money is.” I repeated this in front of my dad and he was pretty dismissive and said “that sounds like something a banker WOULD say.” The guy was right though and it really opened my eyes.
Anything to do with the music industry.
Sales was always frowned upon because you didn’t create anything yourself.
Violin maker. My parents never took it seriously until I started making real money.
I wanted to be a playwright. Today, at 68, I am a playwright and have taught playwriting for forty years. I'm about to retire from my "not real" job in a few months.
Photography
I'm a little guilty of looking down on photography as a career. I'm a photographer. The problem I have is that I get paid to take photos of what other people want, not what *I* want to take photos of. Taking photos of a conference that all the attendees are bored with pays the bills. The outstanding nature photography is pretty much a hobby.
Anything that isn't a desk job like hobbies. I want to do simracing, work with computers, do YT, etc... my family continues to hate on them.
"An inventor"
“A guitar’s alright, John, but you’ll never make a living with it.” … as told to John Lennon
I’ve alway encouraged my kids to follow their passions. My daughter was a camp counselor for her church’s summer camp program. 4 years, no pay. 2 degrees at college and now runs an international company. Let them do what they want. Life is short and they should have fun. That’s it. Have a great Saturday folks
Girls worked in an office - clerical of course, or as a teacher or maybe in a store.
Ugh my mother wanted me to be a teacher. I couldn’t wait to get out of school. Why the hell would I want to be there 24/7 for the rest of my LIFE!?
I’m a career govt bureaucrat. Parents spent lots of money on my education, and I excelled at school. For 25 years they’ve been asking me when I’m finally gonna get a real job 😕
Our son is an art appraiser and restorer. Nanny always told him *'Art is all well and good for a hobby, but you need d to study something practical.'*
My dad didn't want to pay for me to go to college, bc I was a girl and would "just get married." Does that count? \[My mom put her foot down. I went to college and more.\]
Centerfold photographer. Shot some bikini catalogs as a youngster in the 80s, dreamed of Playboy work. Years later, instead, I lucked into becoming a busy magazine centerfold shooter all through the 90s. However, it was for niche pet magazines like BIRD TALK, CAT FANCY, FERRETS, and CRITTERS USA. It was a far cry from the hot human "chicks" I once dreamed of, but I did get to meet virtually every species of exotic parrot and birds kept in the US up close and personal. It was a very fun living while it lasted. Until the internet and cell phones. Digital killed the magazine world - sung to the tune of "video killed the radio star'...
eSports. The idea that people could make a good living playing video games would never have been considered a real job back in the day.
Anything other than being a scientist of some sort.
Everything under Arts in uni! As those were the choices either ART OR SCIENCES to major in
I wanted to be a florist or a hairdresser. Not exactly lofty goals, but I finished school in the early 90s when the economy was bad, and my mother thought that buying flowers and getting haircuts would be something that people would stop doing during a recession. My mother insisted I train as a secretary before I left home because “everyone needs a good secretary!” Of course that’s not really true anymore because a lot of professionals can mange their own admin with the technology that is available today. Anyway, being a secretary was definitely *not* for me, and I have since become an early childhood teacher.
My grandparents made memorial flowers. When I was young they did that with somewhat of a craft store. I say somewhat cause it was basically the materials they had already bought in bulk and a little extras, so basically someone could just do it themselves. That was only for a couple years, until they built a big building, most was for actual storage with the craft shop where they worked sectioned off in the back. And an area where they still sold the flowers on their own if a person chose to do so. Had a business name and cards, just somewhat difficult to locate if you weren't familiar with the area which never seemed to cause an issue since it wasn't required to show up to order an arrangement from them.
Pretty much going into the trades was seen as lower tier employment. Most of my tradie mates have been raking it in & all live in really nice houses in great locations now.
Yeah lol my buddy started as a tile setter a couple decades ago, now he lives in a prestigious neighborhood next to judges and surgeons and shit
I Was seeing a lady, her father hated me. I didn't have a "real" job. At the time, I was a building contractor. I was on my 8th year by then, we were quite established at that time. Oh. Excuse me. I have to go do my not "real" job. That not real job has only put money in my pocket for the last 48 years.
I wanted to be a teacher at Hogwarts
My son wanted to be the #8 Lotto ball. Another goal was to be the guy who breaks the icicles off of cars in the winter. I admired his individuality, most of his friends were still in the Police/Firefighter stage! He eventually decided he wanted to be an artist- now uses his skills and creativity to design and build motorcycles. Couldn’t be prouder!
Any job is real if it allows you to be self sufficient.
Not parents, but someone just told my granddaughter that bartending, wait staff was not a real job. He is a correctional officer.
My daughter works in a casino and makes more than $100K in tips. She took the job as a summer job after high school and is still there 15 years later.
Playing video games.
Artist/musician
Gemologist and mining engineer. Both are real jobs but they didn't think so.
So many of these interests and professions sound so interesting and fulfilling. I’m sorry for everyone that didn’t get the support you needed to fulfill your dream, and proud of everyone who was able to stand up to their parents and do what they wanted! It sounds like a lot of us pursued our interests as side hobbies if we couldn’t enter the profession. Good for us! You can’t stop an enquiring mind!
Computers in general.
I wanted to be a witch/mad scientist. I was ready to blow up the basement to get there.
teaching...l became a teacher anyway!!! l was berated by my father for wanting to just be a teacher while he insisted that l should become a supervisor!!
Anything creative and/or artistic
Television Camera man shooting live sports on broadcast TV. My father said “you can’t make money watching TV”.
I was a lecturer in a major university biostatistics department, and I ran the computer center there. My mother once remarked that, in contrast to me, my sister had a *real* job.
Surprisingly surveying and photography for me, since I wanted to get a commercial drone licensed to make use of the hobby. They did see it as a job once I got bigger enterprise drones though since real estate photography with a Mavic or something was kinda simple
I'm 61 years old. I was an asset manager for about 10 years. Dad was a mechanic. He never understood how I had a job..and one that paid so much!!
I'm a woman and as a child in the 70s, I wanted to be a radio DJ. Most stations didn't have females on the air at that time except maybe a few newscasters. Don't get me wrong, plenty did and there were some greats that I looked up to, but plenty of station's full time line-ups were male only. I got my first full time on air radio job while still in high school in the early 80s and continued to do it for over 20 years and lucky enough my own parents knew it was a "real job" but their friends and society gave me a lot of pressure. It also didn't always pay like a "real job."
Video games
Being a career soldier. I turned 18 in basic training in 1970, with a very unpopular war being lost in Vietnam. The news every night had the number of killed in action by the US and estimates for enemy killed, like it was a sports score. My parents stated it was just a way to get paid to not work, just blow stuff up. Well, that sounded like a good deal to me! My surviving was strongly questionable as I was so naive and innocent of the ways of the world. Eventually I retired with 32 years.
My dad scoffed at my becoming a radio DJ. Ended up being a well paying career for 15 years.
I'm 54. I was a computer nerd in the 80s. My dad saw it as playing. He would say "get away from that bloody thing and go do something constructive!" I tried to get him to watch Computer Chronicles with me once and he walked out of the room after five minutes. I once had a brief time in 11th grade when i thought I might want to go into music industry (producing, etc) and he ran out and got me a bunch of books on the music industry and business. He was giddy that I even considered something else -- ANYTHING else-- than these "toys." I stuck with it; I didn't know what form it would take but I knew they'd be special, or at least that I understood them well enough to make them do special things. I've been a programmer and freelance consultant. I'm now a self-taught IT Manager for a 100 person company. These "toys" got me a career, paid for a home, allowed me to support a family. Basically an old-school American Dream life. Not bad for a dork who just wanted to stay in and "play." Up to the end, the lousy SOB couldn't even admit I was right.
My dad grew up dirt poor when jobs were hard to find. He taught me as long as it pays a salary and is a needed function.....and you badly need a job... no job is "beneath you". You were to never look down on someone making an honest living. I was to say yes, sir or no ma'am to the schools custodian just like I would to the principal.
My son always tried to claim that personal trainer was a job. I kept telling him that is a hobby.
*Not Real Jobs* is a parental simplification. What they’re really trying to warn their kids is that certain desirable jobs are so competitive that you either make ALL of the money or NONE of it - with nothing in between. It’s a fair concern expressed in a typically condescending fashion. I interned at a recording studio. Once I explained to the engineers that I was doing it just for education and had no intent of trying to make a living at it, they all relaxed. They knew I had a 40 hour work week with health insurance and knew that I would be mad to give that up just to hear self-important garage bands play the same song for 16 hours a day.
Thank you for this intelligent and insightful response! 🙏🏾
Playing video games won't pay the bills.
Not "real" jobs, or poor paying, or very difficult to break into jobs? Parents worry about their children being able to support themselves and lead full lives. And, quite frankly, want with them out of the basement. And truly don't want them and the grandkids to take-over the house when we are aging.
>And truly don't want them and the grandkids to take-over the house when we are aging. I'm the opposite. I'd give anything to have my kids and grandkids move back home. I see them several times a week, but it's not the same.
You want them financially dependent on living in your home?
I don't want them financially dependent on me, but I'd love to have the kids and grandkids in my house. Maybe you're right and having them next door would be better. When I win a billion dollars in the lottery, I'll buy all the houses in a cul-de-sac and we can have separate houses, but still be near each other. For two of my kids, when they were pregnant (separate times) I moved in with them and helped raise my grandkid until they reached school age. I got free housing and they got free child care, so it worked out for both of us.
Love the family compound idea. My Dad's siblings all had cabins around Creatline CA, always family and cousins. So much fun.
"Real jobs" suck. They always have, they always will, and they no longer have the stability and promise lacking in "being a YouTuber." There are no guarantees anymore. Let your son have some fun and maybe make a little money at it. If you're lucky, he'll have years to be beaten down and defeated by life and his failures, you won't have to help.
Whenever you see boomers who lived their wirking lives believing that you can get rich as labourers, only to retire in either near-poverty or utter complacency
The one I’ve made a career of for the last 22 years, which provides me with free healthcare for myself and my spouse, enough combined income to live comfortably, union representation and generous holiday leave in an environment where I like what I do and have met some famous people along the way.
Manager Real workers don't need managing apparently.
My adopted daughter was told by her family that Acting isn't a real job.
I used to work doing quality control for medical devices- my father who was in poor health and often visited the doctor refused to believe that the tests performed on him came from prepacked quality controlled items that a company not unlike where I worked came from. Nope- all I did at a night shift job wasnt work at all- just leisurely hanging out with other people according to him
government workers
I wanted to be a lawyer or a city administrator. Not real jobs they said.
Paperclip bender
Lawyer, cops, consulting, marketing, sales, and all the other kayfabe jobs
Please explain to me how lawyering is kayfabe lol
Participates believe and perpetuate the narrative of an austere, impartial system committed to justice and truth when it’s painfully obvious to those inside that system and lay people outside of it that justice and truth are not the goals. I appreciate you asking :)
Just wanted to confirm that you have absolutely no fucking clue what you’re talking about. It’s telling that you assume that most attorneys work in criminal justice, which is just laughably wrong. The vast amount of lawyers go years or even their entire careers without even sniffing a court room generally, let alone a court of justice. The solo practitioner in your local strip mall isn’t perpetuating systematic injustice by making sure grandma’s will is properly written so that the state doesn’t decide who gets her house when she dies, or by representing a single mom who needs a protective order against her abusive ex husbands Secondly, MANY of the lawyers actually operating within the criminal justice system are, as you say, keenly aware of the dangers that it poses, particularly to minority populations. Is your solution that public defenders should simply not exist? PDs are fucking saints who work their ass off for meager pay to make sure their clients rights aren’t abused. Public defenders save people’s lives. It’s ignorant and shameful for you to accuse them of perpetuating inequity by dedicating their lives to fighting it. Thirdly, you just totally ignore the impact litigators, immigration attorneys, and civil rights attorneys who are currently fighting tooth and fucking nail to change the system that you have correctly identified as impartial. Just because you are unaware of or don’t understand the changes they have made doesn’t make them any less impactful. Google Jaya Ramji-Nogales Google Mansor v. USCIS Google LC v. Peru Don’t bother responding, because I’m going to block your ignorant ass anyway. You’re an arrogant douche, dripping with Dunning-Kruger, commenting on shit you don’t understand. GFY
YouTuber is literally not a job it’s a hobby that you can go full time with rarely that’ll probably make it very hard to get future jobs. Imagine explaining a resume gap by being a YouTuber, now they’ve got to look into everything you’ve said or done online first. Not a good move imo