Boy, you really know how to get into deep thinking!

Of our 3, I would say 2 have sucessful careers.

Our youngest (daughter) is a sucessful wife and mother. Don't knock it, these days there aren't many who are sucessful at that. From young on I knew that was just what she would do. She and her family are very happy and enjoy life.

Our oldest (son) is a very sucessful financial advisor. He and two others established their own business and it has grown continually. He puts in a lot of hours, but manages to have enough quality time with family.

He showed interest in financial growth by around 10th grade. He tried a couple other directions, but his real interest was finance. By the time he was in high school, every day he would thoroughly read through the Stock Market page in the paper. I thought that was crazy! He is one of those people that can do anything he wants to do. If he has never done it before, he just finds the info needed (books or internet) and learns how to do it. That includes anything from car repair to home remodeling, or landscaping.

Our middle child (son) owns a couple rental properties - that is a pain! It could have future profit if the market ever recovers. He had been injured in an auto crash and lives in a LOT of pain, and that keeps him from doing the things he would like to do.

My no. 3 child, a male, has found a good job in the computer field. He, by nature, writes code for UNIX machines (programmer). The other part of his job is being an IT (Information Technology) guy.

His first job out of college was challenging, but as he progressed into the job, he began to see big failings in the organization. What he noticed was that they had no problem selling the basic product to a new customer, but there was no repeat business from existing customers. All the existing customers were angry with the firm. Bugs and promised features were either missing or did not work. (The sales force had a habit of adding bells and whistles to the quote. They's put in anything the customer wanted, but had no idea if it was possible or not.)

Sure enough, in a couple of years, they were in trouble and headed for bankruptcy or a fire sale to another organization. During this turmoil period, many good performers jumped ship and there was staff reductions. he decided to leave.

But before he left, I do recall the day he became the "new guy hero". (The firm wrote software code for inventory, warehouse, and manufacturing control.) It was 2 days before Christmas when they got a call from United Parcel. Their main warehouse and shipping station ahd bogged down. The computer had slowed and order processing was too slow to be useful AND Christmas was on their heels. My son was flown post haste to the customer to sort it out. He could not find the bug or anything wrong with the program, It passes all tests he ran. The company officials were on his back. It was a very uncomfortable position. He had given up and packing up to leave when he overheard a chance remark: "IBM was here yesterday doing maintence and upgading the computers." IBM was here - a light flicker on in his head. He checked for programs running in the main frame and sure enough, there sat a diagnostic monitor that was hogging most the CPU's resources. The servicemen had gone away and left it running. It wasn't noticed until the system became taxed with the last minute holiday traffic. He shut the monitor off and the backlog began to clear - Instant Hero.

His next job he really likes and has been there several years. He works in the Bio-Chemistry Department at a State University writing high speed data display and management programs. He was concerned that he did no know chemistry, but it turned out, the boss was right: The researchers would handle the chemistry. What they needed was data base management and display. They wanted his programming techniques.

Several universities in the US have similar Chemisty and Materials department and each have been working in the same experimantal field. Each University had independently developed a data base, and all were different. Also, none of them had a way to dispaly the data. EAch researcher would look a a vast array of numbers and somewhere would see a trend within a small piece of the data field. That data was of no use to anyone else and the author may have missed other important trands as well. My son is part of a team that wrote code to process these millions of data bits and show those graphically. Not only that, these universities were linked with high speed data lines that allowed any researcher at any school to call up and display data from any location. it was the team's job to handle and interpret these varied data bases so that they looked and behaved the same - no small feat. They wrote a master data handler that could dive into the data base of any 10 facilities spread over several states.

After the base model began working as planned, he was sent to Japan, Princeton, and Cambridge to be on hand when they installed their version of the code.

Is there a downside? Yes. This work is funded by the National Science Foundation, so every two years, the team has to go to Washington (with hat in hand), make a presentation and ask for two more years of funds. If the funds are not approved, the job is gone.

Another downside: Very little social life. He's shy around girls and hasn't found one he willing to date.

Amazing? I don't know about that.

Successful--definitely. And in this day and age, I don't think that's anything to sneeze at.

Now, understand, at 18, DD wanted to be a foreign correspondant. She started college majoring in foreign affairs, minoring in journalism. Her dearest wish was to be in the middle East, or any other world hot spot--causing her mother great concern, naturally--but I believe everyone should follow their dreams.

Well, after a detour of a couple of years, she researched and decided to become a dental tech. When she went to registration at the college, the program was already filled. She pretty much blindly turned to the next table--which had no line, and plenty of spaces--and signed up for.... optical sciences. She's an optician, with a good job in a drs office. She's responsible, self-sufficient, has bought her own car and house. Maybe not as exciting as running around the world and putting herself in the way of danger, but hey, I'll take her safely home, helping people choose designer frames for their glasses any day of the week. And fortunatey, there seems to be no shortage of jobs for qualified opticians in our state at the moment.

Our older son is a US Deputy Marshal in Kentucky. Soon, he will be made THE Marshal, due to political appointments. He's done well. Took Criminal Justice in college, and just went from there. Has a nice home, car, etc. Sadly, our younger son is here with us, depression, anxiety, and not working. Life doesn't balance out too well, but we're coping with it.

My oldest daughter just quit her job with a
leading financial institution to go work full time for the
coffee shop that she has worked part time for for the
last 10 years. In the fall she has plans to go back
to college to study food service.
I have no idea what she is doing!

Oldest dtr/1st kid teaches bio at a private school after researching sea turtles for several years for her Phd.

Oldest son/second kid is embarking on a second career as a HS French teacher after 15 years as a social worker in an institution for schizophrenics.

Second son/3rd kid is a professional musician earning a nice living, raising two kids.

Third son/4th kid teaches HS PE and coaches football and baseball.

Second dtr/5th kid is projects manager for a Chamber of Commerce and LOVES her job.

Third dtr/6th and youngest kid teaches English in S Korea, will return to US to pursue her PhD in Anthropology next fall.

The oldest four are married to similarly interesting types, three of the couples have produced six gkids, the two youngest girls not yet - but the 28 year old wants nothing but to marry and stay home with the kids despite loving her job, the youngest says maybe someday!

I have a love-a-ly bunch of coconuts!

I think that to have any job at all is amazing in this job market.

There's nothing ordinary about what any one of us do. We all have an impact on someone somewhere, which is amazing.

My son volunteered to serve his country and enlsited in the Army National Guard. He serves full time and recently deployed to Iraq. His inspiration came from many places but most likely from me and his step-father (both prior military).

Dees, I like what you said.

Amazing is a relative term. My oldest daughter works for a pharmaceutical company (amazing because I am critical of Big Pharma.....or maybe that's not so amazing). She just got promoted from Sr. Analyst to Project Leader, and is going for her MBA at night (amazing because she got pregnant/married at 16, divorced at 18, and worked her way through school, etc.).

I find it amazing that my son works for the U. S. Army. I never would have predicted this. My kids work for the two best employers in the area; the tradeoff is a long commute for each of them. He, too, worked his way through school, and got his bachelor's degree at age 30.

My middle daughter was a university student majoring in clarinet performance when she died. She was an amazing musician, and continues to amaze me in other ways.

Dees 1, please convey my sincere gratitude to your son for his service to our country and thank you for inspiring that service.

I don't know if anything my kids do qualifies as amazing at all, but we are pleased for them and hopeful that one finds business picking up in this economy.

Our oldest quit working to have her babies and raise them. She is a wonderful mother. Her DH is a lovely, hard working investment banker who provides well for his young family.

The next one works in film as an assistant editor and is trying to break into editing. Business is down, though, and he and his girlfriend are the ones suffering from this economy in our family.

Younger son is a young lawyer in New York City. We have read about cases he has worked on in the Wall Street Journal, so that was exciting.

The thing I am proudest of with my 3 kids plus SIL is that they are people of good character who like each other as good friends.

Hellooo Judy, long time no see. I have to agree, a good mom and dad are priceless. As a part time sub teacher I can almost always tell which kids have parents that care and truly love them and which ones don't pay them any attention. Having a parent at home when the kids are, means so much to a child. Bravo to your DD!
Do you enjoy having a son who can help you financially? We have one in our family too. He is soooo smart about money, my dh can go and get free advise!!
Thank goodness for Landlords, good ones at least. I'm sure it can be a pain at times.

Jemdandy, I love the Instant Hero story!! He does have an amazing job. Getting University computers to interact is no small feat. ( DS has a computer science class right now that he struggles to keep up with. The programming is tough.) Once again, that's a job I salute. Good for him for seeing how client happiness is important!! My dh was an engineer and would be frustrated with his company too, for the same reasons as your son. Now he mainly does the family farm, his true love.

Azzalea- your dd found a her niche. As we all know a good optition is so important.

Bigack--Marshal!! that sounds like a cool job!! wow

Marry- I often say the same about my son in college. As long as he pulls off the grades and stays out of trouble, we'll stay out of his business. He does share but not near as talkative as his friends.

Sherman- I'd imagine if you could have all of the kids home at one time, you could have a whole days conversation about the jobs they all do! Sounds like fun to me.

Dee_ add me to the list of grateful admirers.
I grew up a Navy kid and moved several times, it wasn't always easy.
Thank him from me too.

Thanks for your responses, I'll get to the rest soon.