Townsend's career has not turned out as he and his father expected. Has your career turned out as you expected? If you have adult children, what do you think of their career choices?

Townsend felt his father would be disappointed that he'd been expelled from the Naval Academy. Has your career turned out as you expected? If you have adult children, what do you think of their career choices?

I am a retired librarian. I was on the reference desk for many years and then the last ten years I had my dream job of being the book club coordinator. I had over 200 book clubs that I supplied books for. I had my own book collection and was able to order new books monthly. Whenever a club requested a title I was able to purchase it. I was also in charge of purchasing and loaning classroom collections to our teachers in grade school through high school.

My "career" was not at all what I dreamed of as a child or as a young adult . Both my children have careers they never intended to have. Sometimes you have to live awhile in order to find what works and what is possible. I was happy working with children from Kindergarten through 8th grade and was happily surprised with the good times.

My career certainly did not, but it did end up in the right direction. Both of my adult daughters have excellent careers in the fields of their choice which I highly approve.

Oh, parental expectations, some of us just have such high desires for our kids to succeed! My career, chosen by my Father was to run the family business. I was such a disappointment! But as it turned out I did get a business degree, then a teaching credential. Mom was happy, I was happy, Dad not so much!! After my Dad died (at 45) I went back to college and worked on what I really wanted to do from the very beginning, being a nurse. This led to a career that I eventually retired from. My child wanted to be an MD, kids came, she works in Human Resources, Oh well! Still looking forward to grandkids decision.

My career was not what I ever intended but turned out better than I could have planned. Neither of my kids chose the careers I had in mind for them but they are both independent and seemingly pretty happy. I think that is the important thing.

Most definitely not! I became an attorney because I thought that would please my father. He's gone now and I am working in a field I really don't enjoy. I wanted to be a literature professor, editor or librarian - go figure :)

My career has not turned out at all as I expected. I did not believe I would ever have the opportunity to be a successful business woman. It took the trust of another person to bring out in me all that he thought I had to offer and was very blessed that he nurtured me and helped me to excel. My sons career choices have not been what I expected, nor what he expected. I think he is saddened by opportunities he wasted. Fortunately he is young enough to take advantage of future opportunities.

When I was young, our jobs were not considered "careers" for women. We were not expected to keep working when we married. In fact, my father would let my mother work. The man was to support the family. Times are better now and young women have many more choices. I did not pick out careers for my children. I told them they had to find something they enjoyed. I believe they are all happy with their choices.

I’m not sure I ever “planned” a career, but as new opportunities presented themselves I discovered that there were more choices than I could have imagined as a young person. Although I am now retired, I have worked as a teacher, a counselor, a corporate trainer and manager, and finally, as a college professor and administrator. I loved every stop along the way and continued to learn throughout my career.

My son has chosen a path that I would not have predicted but finds his work meaningful and rewarding.

I think that for many people of my generation, numerous careers did not turn out as expected because we were willing to say "this isn't for me" or "I made a mistake and do not enjoy the career I trained for in college (or at any point after one's formal education ended)." If one's parents or grandparents had lived through the Great Depression in the United States or a famine/genocide in another country, then there was more of a tendency to stay the course; there probably was a fear of giving up the security of a paycheck and/or health insurance.