How do I get him to focus on his studies?

Hi, I am a mother of three boys and the eldest turned 16 in July. I have I always done all that is in my capacity to make sure they attain the best care and education I can afford. What worries me is that the eldest of the three has decided to choose a different path from what we always wanted him to follow. He wants to pursue his talent instead of pursuing his studies to attain a better career.

It is great to hear that you are doing your best to give your children quality education something that you possibly never had yourself.

In these times when some parents may take a few things for granted especially with bills knocking on the door on a daily basis, you have stuck in there. Congratulations are in order here!!!

Quality education is the only true inheritence that any parent can leave his chi9ldren

It is always disturbing to most parents to hear that their little ones are straying from a certain established family path.

This is because as a parent you want your children to grow up and become somebody in society, lead a better life, where possible even better than what you could afford and not a complete waste who cannot afford the basics in life.

With this in mind parents are always forced to go that extra mile to provide and care for their children irrespective of what it takes! And such are the challenges of parentage.

However, this does not mean that all that you want for them will always work out as you planned. Children as they grow face many challenges that come with the type of environment that they are exposed to.

In these times of social media there is just so much to handle, children today have different heroes and life objectives as opposed to what your generation had.

These challenges might not be just the same as what you faced as youth and since these challenges change with time so are the ways of dealing with them.

During your days being a doctor appealed to everyone yet in some way these children don’t see anything so special with that, so they would rather be musicians where they will earn some quick money and become celebrities overnight.

You have to handle this situation with care, talk to this teenage son of yours, explain to him the values of attaining a professional career like the fact that he will always have something to fall back on should his music not go far.

But even then you are still his parent with a great role to play in his life - stay relevant.

This requires you to give relevant examples of musicians who were once great and have fallen from grace to grass.

He should know that by becoming a musician does not mean instant success.

In fact, it is even more difficult to make it in that field than in a professional career. He should know that whatever he sees in music videos takes months and sometimes even years of dedication and hard work to be successful.

Equally I think it would be very cruel to discourage this boy completely.

Try to find out if at all your boy has talent then help him to nurture it in the best possible way that can yield something in the future.

This could be his destined way of earning a living.

With some positive advice you can win the trust of this boy, because once he realises that you have his best interest at heart then all will fall in place