I really cringe whenever I see this and my own parents are just as guilty. Please share your experiences and insight and warning, this is a bit of a venting thread.
It is just scary that some parents so willingly push their kids into such serious careers, especially when the parents have no medical experience of their own and fixate on income. This friend I have behaves exactly like my father and fortunately for me, I decided that I am in love with medicine but for totally different reasons. I'm all for stimulating interest in kids, but the degree to which some parents go can have very detrimental effects on their children.
This friend (who works in banking and has no family members in the medical field) recently had a baby girl. Before the baby was born, she decided her baby will be a surgeon because they make so much money. My friend's parents wanted her to be a doctor but she opted not to and says now she regrets it. We had an in-depth discussion and she goes "Oh, I like EVERYTHING about medicine". I really doubt someone can accurately say that without even having ever shadowed a doctor. She says surgery is too easy and that even she could perform surgery...she never even had surgery done on herself with the exception of a few stitches. She says the surgical career will be a piece of cake. She plans to brainwash her daughter once her daughter can sit up by herself, buy her medical baby toys and plastic body parts. Again, I told her, this is all under the assumption that her baby will want to play with those items at all.
Her plans for her baby include making her skip at least 2 grades, play the violin professionally, and enter the medical scholars program. Somehow she had the misunderstanding that the med scholars programs mean you enter the MD program straight out of high school and finish the degree immediately. I clarified that "yes, you are technically accepted into medical school, but most programs have you complete about 3 years of undergrad and maintain a minimum GPA". She hasn't even done her research properly!
We are close friends but all she does is obsess over her baby and this is all she ever talks about! I try to have meaningful, friendly, and in depth conversations about the pros and cons and that this career is one someone really has to have the heart for, you truly are a servant, and if you don't you will be terribly terribly miserable. She literally says "How hard can it be?!", and my thoughts are "I wish you only knew". My dad had this same mentality, and to this day he feels he somehow pushed me into it and really beats himself up over it. He still sends me random presents in the mail because when he finally saw the hardships of medical school and how long the training years can be, measured up against the debt and final income...he realized this is definitely not the field for money but a field for the heart.
I just wish people realize the association they are making with money and quality of life and that they are not interchangeable. That aside, some people literally have their minds made up and even logic and statistics don't budge them. What is up with this?
It is just scary that some parents so willingly push their kids into such serious careers, especially when the parents have no medical experience of their own and fixate on income. This friend I have behaves exactly like my father and fortunately for me, I decided that I am in love with medicine but for totally different reasons. I'm all for stimulating interest in kids, but the degree to which some parents go can have very detrimental effects on their children.
This friend (who works in banking and has no family members in the medical field) recently had a baby girl. Before the baby was born, she decided her baby will be a surgeon because they make so much money. My friend's parents wanted her to be a doctor but she opted not to and says now she regrets it. We had an in-depth discussion and she goes "Oh, I like EVERYTHING about medicine". I really doubt someone can accurately say that without even having ever shadowed a doctor. She says surgery is too easy and that even she could perform surgery...she never even had surgery done on herself with the exception of a few stitches. She says the surgical career will be a piece of cake. She plans to brainwash her daughter once her daughter can sit up by herself, buy her medical baby toys and plastic body parts. Again, I told her, this is all under the assumption that her baby will want to play with those items at all.
Her plans for her baby include making her skip at least 2 grades, play the violin professionally, and enter the medical scholars program. Somehow she had the misunderstanding that the med scholars programs mean you enter the MD program straight out of high school and finish the degree immediately. I clarified that "yes, you are technically accepted into medical school, but most programs have you complete about 3 years of undergrad and maintain a minimum GPA". She hasn't even done her research properly!
We are close friends but all she does is obsess over her baby and this is all she ever talks about! I try to have meaningful, friendly, and in depth conversations about the pros and cons and that this career is one someone really has to have the heart for, you truly are a servant, and if you don't you will be terribly terribly miserable. She literally says "How hard can it be?!", and my thoughts are "I wish you only knew". My dad had this same mentality, and to this day he feels he somehow pushed me into it and really beats himself up over it. He still sends me random presents in the mail because when he finally saw the hardships of medical school and how long the training years can be, measured up against the debt and final income...he realized this is definitely not the field for money but a field for the heart.
I just wish people realize the association they are making with money and quality of life and that they are not interchangeable. That aside, some people literally have their minds made up and even logic and statistics don't budge them. What is up with this?
But seriously, some people need to think about the damage the pressure alone can cause: familial strain, the opposite effect, psych issues in the child, etc.
