Living Through Somebody Else Options

[DoubleJ]

Do you feel that your parents are trying to live through you? Or do you play a game that you try to live your life like how you wanted it to be?

I am living through my little brother right now. He is going to the prestigious prep school that I went to, so I want to make sure that he does things the right way.

[libertie]

Living vicariously is something that we talk about a lot in our education classes. Last year I was a music education major, and I had to do a lot of observations for some of the classes I was taking. Watching other teachers/band directors do what they do is a vicarious experience, and ultimately it made me decide to change my major.

Not away from music, of course. It was just kind of overwhelming. I just got scared and felt like there was no way I'd make a good teacher. So now I'm a bachelor of arts major, focusing on music. Yeah, I know. That's one of those "getting a degree just to get a degree" degrees. Oh well. :S

On this topic, I don't think my mom's trying to live through me. I do think a lot of parents try to give their kids what they didn't have, but my mom is unfortunate in that she was stuck with taking care of three kids on her own when my dad left her, and the only form of child support he could provide was the benefits that automatically showed up from Social Security. Now she's started having back problems which cost her the job at the prison she had (apparently when they found out she was hurting they decided it was affecting her position as a guard and let her go). So she's in a shitload of trouble financially, and so am I.. but there's not really anything either of us can do about it.