I vowed not to kill my kids' career dreams, then I became a mom

I carried a quiet grudge against my parents for steering me away from writing and toward a “real” career. They saw my journals and the essays my teachers praised and still urged me to study education or law, and for years I resented their lack of faith in a creative path.

Decades later I sent my firstborn to an expensive liberal arts college to major in film after years of deliberate cultivation—Mandarin immersion, piano lessons, summer workbooks—because I wanted my child to know their interests mattered and to feel free to follow what lit them up.

Now, with tuition bills beside headlines about jobs disappearing and AI upending creative industries, my old grudge felt more complicated. I finally understood the practical calculations my parents had made: they weren’t trying to crush dreams so much as anticipate a future I hadn’t yet seen.

liberal arts, film major, creative careers, college tuition, ai disruption, job losses, mandarin immersion, piano lessons, parenting choices, career dreams