Managing your child's career?

[Journalist Juliet]

Hi everyone,

I'm just wondering how mums here manage their children's careers - I expect this will not really be an issue unless your child has a lot of professional work.

Does anyone here hire a manager for their child?
If so, what benefits does this bring, and what drawbacks if there are any?

Alternatively, do you call yourself your child's manager?
What made you decide to take this role, and what kind of challenges does it throw up?

Thanks everyone, I'm really interested in getting your views on this.
(If you don't want your comments to possibly be used for my dissertation, please just say so and I promise not to touch them! Please see here for more detail on the work I'm doing: http://www.notapushymum.com/phpbb/viewt ... =8&t=12229)

[nextinline]

To my mind, it is about helping your child to find opportunities to do the things they love to do (sing, dance, act) in a safe way. I have three children (one ds who writes aged 16, and one ds and one dd who perform aged 13 and 10 respectively. I would not describe it in terms of a career although the opportunites they have been lucky enough to have had will have given them confidence that will feed into any job or career path they wish to take later. It is probably the same for many parents that you start off hoping to put them of by showing how tough it is and as they have each little success it leads to bigger things. Whatever happens the kids have enjoyed their experiences and learnt a lot about themselves. We have also made some fantastic friends along the way. It also helps them to have realistic expectations about their goals and talents. I think it has made them very rounded individuals who are able to cope with failure as well as success. They are also able to enjoy other people's successes: this is something that this site is excellent for.

In terms of management, a good Agent has the child's best interests at heart and knows the child well enough to know what is right for them or not. It gives you peace of mind to know that they know their business well. However, parents should always be the first line of defence: after all you can never be too careful where children are concerned. Also with a whole network of parents online here we can all work together to ensure our kids are safe. Challenges are time, short turn arounds and always being ready for the next unexpected call. Also long periods of time where nothing much happens followed by a hectic schedule. That's why us parents have to keep a sense of balance and proportion in our childrens and our lives. For us having lots of friends who have other interests and having a normal school life are essential. A lot of the time my kids choose not to discuss what they are doing with friends as they consider that it is just something they do outside of school .
Good luck with your research. I have done my fair share of research in my time (although not about performing children/parents). Sometimes you find the question you started with leads you in a whole new direction.

[bruno2]

I think the job discription of a parent woud be "children's manager" we are the ones who try to put them on the right road of life, which covers all aspects from telling them to wash their hands and clean their teeth, to helping them right their first job/college interview letter. Hopefully we will also be their best friends, after all we are the ones who will always be there for them. Its a tuff job but we would never change it !