Why doesn't my family understand my career choice?
Families often misinterpret the demands of studying for professional exams as having excessive free time, or judge fulfilling, non-traditional career paths against conventional standards of success and wealth. This constant questioning and lack of comprehension exhausts candidates and creates a painful disconnect, leaving people feeling undervalued by the very people closest to them.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1seeking validation from peers or online communities who understand the work
- 2venting online to others in similar roles
- 3accepting the disconnect and focusing on personal fulfillment
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My parents see me as a failure for not chasing a more lucrative career and don’t understand why to me, working here is my dream and version of “making it” big time.”source ↗
“I have a similar disconnect - they are glad I'm happy but honestly don't understand why I'm not living in NYC running the Metropolitan Opera, rather than my very fulfilling job running a community center in the community that means the most to me.”source ↗
“Every week someone in my family will ask this question and they are starting to comment how I have a lot of free time. It’s honestly starting to piss me off because they keep asking me and commenting repeatedly.”source ↗
“Im so fucking exhausted bc I already know that I’ll probably only wind up doing this for a few years and then pivot to literally anything else but they can’t seem to comprehend that.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 11Is teaching still a realistic option for me?
- 2Am I too unstable mentally to be a teacher?
- 3What career paths are parents suggesting for high school graduates?
- 2Should I get an accounting certificate or degree while working?
- 15Switching from audit to tax in accounting
- 5Should I quit my demanding job for a simpler, lower-paying one?