How do I get past my parents disapproval of my career choice when they made me lose all confidence in myself and convinced me that nursing is an awful, low class job when I was so excited to do it?

Been there, done that. I found that, as you begin your life as an adult, there is usually a certain amount of uncertainly. Many of us flounder for a couple of years just trying to figure out what we want to do. That is a GOOD thing, in my opinion. Secondly, if you have a loving family, you want to please them. You probably respect their opinions. However, I also believe in unconditional love and support. That is what your family should offer you. Even if you are making a mistake, they don't really know that. I mean even though they may be cynically looking at all the possible impediments, are they looking at your strengths and praising those? You say you have a calling, a commitment. If you do, then I say go for it. But, having said that, there is a way to find out if it truly is your calling and to experience the health field without a full life commitment. I wish I had! I would recommend getting your CNA license and working for at least a year.That will tell you if you can: 1. handle the physicality of the profession. You are going to be on your feet a lot. You probably will have some shit shifts and a lot of 12 hours or even double shifts. You must make sure you can and want to do that. 2. Can you handle the messiness of it. I never had children so some of the bodily fluids and functions were a bit distasteful to me. It didn't stop me from doing my job or clinicals but it did influence my decision about the health field. 3. Job shadow. Many facilities such as hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, PT facilities and assisted living facilities offer job shadowing. That, along with working as a CNA, will give you a realistic picture of what a nurse does. 4. Check out some forum boards for various insights into what people actually doing the profession. I like http://allnurses.com. 5. If you are religious, pray about it. Nursing is a time-honored and very respected profession so your parents' negativity towards it is surprising to me. Could they be jealous of you? Could they really have such little belief in your abilities that they feel certain you are going to fail? Sheesh what parents. My mother was like that and it only made me more determined to do what I THOUGHT was right for me. After all, you are an adult. It is your prerogative to make your own decisions. Rejoice in your successes and own your mistakes and then learn from them. After all, if you are young, and pursue nursing, and later NP, and if you decide somewhere along the road that it really isn't for you, you still will have gained great knowledge and experience. I sort of fell into the 3 careers I had. So when the last one laid me off after 23 years but 10 years before retirement, I chose to pursue nursing. I aced all my pre reqs, I applied and got into 5 of 6 nursing programs and ultimately chose Oregon Health Sciences which is the prestige school in our state. But I hated it. That surprised me and I fought to ignore that. But as the second year went on, I got more and more depressed and sick. I mean, I had spent 2.5 years getting into nursing school, i HAD to do it. Guess what? No you don't. With the help of a good counselor, I realized I had made a mistake in choice of my final career. I'm now in a Health Information Management 2 year program and very happy. I am still in the health field but in something I enjoy. My years spent in doing pre reqs and the year at university prepared me quite well for this program. Many of the classes I'd already taken were pre reqs for this one so it all worked out. So nothing is irreversible. Do YOU want to do it? If, after doing some of the above and thinking deeply about it, then do it. If you are determined, nothing will stop you. In my class of 16 were an unstable diabetic, one with ADHD, one with Celiac's, 3 olders folks going after a second or third career and several straight out of high school. And, since it is a great field, somebody must think it is a lucrative yet rewarding field or they wouldn't have such waiting lists to get in. It's your life, and your decision. Don't let anyone sway you from it. I believe you will regret THAT later in life more than if you tried it and decided later you didn't like it and changed to a different aspect of the health field. Good luck to you!

If you want to be a nurse, do it. Be happy in what you do and don't listen to your parents disapproval. Your mom sounds toxic. The less time you spend around her the better.

Let your life demonstrate to them that you have made the right choice for YOU, and it's a great choice for anyone. I recently met with 3rd year MD residents, one of which told me that, if she had to do it all over, she would become a PA or NP, because they have far less student debt, high salaries, greater schedule flexibility, and much better work/life balance. NP's can also have their own practices, if she wish to. So, you get back a good $100K in student debt and several years of your life.

They probably just want you to be a doctor. I know in my parent's country, the nurses are usually one step above maids because they have to clean body fluids. Here, nursing actually requires knowledge and a wider range of skills. Stick with your ambitions. Once you are making a ton of money, you'll see them suddenly become your best friend. Also, sometimes parents push you towards a goal and then get mad at you. I've had friends push them towards medicine, and then they wonder why their daughter is unmarried at age 30 (not a horrible thing, nor am i saying all female doctors are unmarried at that age-just that it is much harder given the strenous schedule with no flexibility).

Just try to understand from your parent's view, they care for you and that's why they may not want you to do this with this condition. Regarding low class job, it's not like that, its a noble work. I'd also suggest that if you can meet any nurse and ask their opinion and try to understand this occupation. If you still feel, you can do that. Go ahead with this, gradually your parents will understand.

Without knowing the situation with your knee, I would say to follow your passion.  If your knees prove to not be able to handle being on your feet that much, there are plenty of opportunities to expand on a nursing career in the medical field where you can still help people.  I would shadow a few different types of nurses and see which type appeals to you the most.  Runners knee isn't the end of the world as far as how it should affect your career choice.  I wouldn't let that get in the way of what you want to do in life.  Take steps to fix it and follow your dreams.

Ultimately this is your life, and this is your decision to make. If this career will bring you happiness, go for it. I did not follow my gut on my decision in my youth, and I ended up in a career I hated. Thankfully, I was in a car accident, lost my job and had an opportunity to try again. I am now in that original career and I LOVE IT. I'm good at it, I feel successful and that is the best feeling in the world. As a nurse, you are in the medical field, you are a med student. As for runners knee, get some physio, get some massage therapy, do your remedial exercises and you should be good to go. It's not like you have DJD. Best wishes.

I had similar case when I was going to apply for college. My choices were interior design or hotel management. Those choices are definitely some that my parents would never even consider. (My parents, along with other relatives are business people, small entrepreneurs and stuff like that). I am not really sure about your parents’ disapproval, but from my experience, it is the most unfamiliar career choice they ever heard (Not that they never encounter nurses, it's just not a part of life they ever considered to have - because people around you, for example: none of your relatives are in the medical industry. So, they have absolutely no idea about what's the real deal of being a nurse, and they tend to speculate based on what they see). Other reason, if you are coming from well-being family (financially-at least better that others), that is absurd for them to find out that their child choose to be a nurse (because it pay less), and you work for hours. Your parents may be concerned about your welfare and happiness in the future. But at the end of the day, you are the only one who would find out whether you are happy with your life.   I wish you would go and tell your parents that it’s not a bad choice for a career. You are excited about it, and most important: you are passionate about it (right? I wish you are). State some reasons why you choose to be a nurse, and show them that it makes a lot of difference for you if they are supportive. It will definitely need efforts and time though. I hope it helps even a bit :) Good luck with your effort to convince your parent.

Thanks for asking me to answer. Bad child is not uncommon but bad mother is rare - "Kuputro Jayate Kwaichidapi, Kumata Na Bhavati" (- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara). Your mother nurses your runner's knee, I assume. You can always volunteer in health related matter without being a medical or paramedical person. Give your mother a chance to complain against you in Quora! In all Court of Law, the opponent is given a chance in front of the Judges/Juries ! Actually your question is exactly kind of supplementary to the topic we were talking about in LinkedIn Influencers' post, "If I were 22" : http://www.linkedin.com/channels/ifiwere22?goback=.mpd2_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_20140529180553*580494355*5if*5i*5were*522*5reloaded&trk=tod-post-tag, you can see and follow my kind of info graphics -http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140529180553-80494355-if-i-were-22-reloaded?trk=cha-feed-art-title-10000306 Your mother knows you more than me! Your mother's wordings are for you - they should remain within your family, hardly can be disclosed to a person you are consulting - he/she is under oath. Consultant can be a doctor, a lawyer - these professionals are not only for filing a case or treating a disease. Kind of lead to find a neutral person from real life for both the mother and child... Runner’s Knee can be a justifiable reason to think about your dream. That is a different topic. Educational Degrees does not matter to become a notable person, what degree http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison had? There are many examples... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa ... If you were trying to start a professional blog or a startup and your mother going against you, possibly I would support you as I can calculate the return of investment in a straight forward way.This answer is a theoretical discussion intended for the benef...