08 Oct 2022 | 4 mins

Growing up there’s nothing worse than mum or dad turning to you and saying ‘I’m so disappointed in you’. We can handle screaming, yelling and being sent to our rooms but the feeling of letting your ‘rents down is something that cuts through the heart.

But, when your parents have a set pathway they imagine you taking to reach success and happiness it’s almost inevitable that you’re going to disappoint them. Eventually, you have to make your own way and figure out things by yourself and sometimes this doesn’t follow the script your parents wrote for your life. Here’s how to deal with it.

1. Sometimes disappointing your parents is inevitable

Yeah your parents have raised you, but that doesn’t mean you’re the same people with the same goals and ambitions. While you might share a lot of similar values as your ‘rents, at the end of the day you’re your own individual and every aspect of your life isn’t going to align with what your parents want for you.

This isn’t a bad thing- everyone diverges from their parents at one point or another and for a lot of us, it starts happening when we finish high school and are faced with the daunting question of what’s next.

2. Remember, all they want is for you to be happy

At the end of the day, all your parents want for you is for you to be happy. In their heads, they have a path set out that will make you happy and if you decide to do your own thing this can freak them out. In a world that has changed so much since our parents were in school, it’s hard to explain to our mums that their traditional ideas of success just don’t translate into today.

We’re facing a housing crisis, job instability, an ever-changing and competitive job market and that doesn’t match up with what our parents went through.

3. Your happiness is your top priority

No one is responsible for your happiness except for you. Your parents have done their best to give you a good life but it all comes down to you making your own happiness a top priority. You’re the one who will have to live with your decisions and if you’re not making choices with your best interests at heart, chances are you’re going to find yourself fifty years down the track stuck in a job you hate, and with a life that you don’t want.

When I think about times I’ve disappointed my parents, it was when I graduated high school without an inkling of a post-school plan. They’d constantly try to motivate me, inspire me and sometimes grill me, trying to get me to suss out different career paths. The truth was, I was so frazzled by how broad the world of careers was. Where the heck am I supposed to fit into all of this?

This is where our Career Quiz would have really come in handy to just clarify to my ‘rents that I’ve got options! With Q's that’ll dig deep into your talents, values, interests and personality, you’ll figure out some jobs that would suit you perfectly. Oh and, the planner doesn’t end there. It’ll also give you all the hot goss on how to get to your chosen career path, like what qualifications or experience you’d need and what skillset you’d want to have. Man, my parents would have frothed my initiative in doing this (and it’s fun so all parties involved would have been stoked) so check it out here!