Mom Bans Her Kids From Choosing Certain College Majors Because It’s ’Not A Time To Explore Passions'
pics five | Shutterstock In a TikTok video, a mom named Ruth Han explained that she banned her kids from choosing certain college majors, saying it's not the time to explore their passions, thanks to an uncertain job market and economy.
For many parents, sending their kids off to college comes with a mix of emotions. Considering tuition isn't cheap, it's not surprising that many parents want to see their kids succeed and graduate with a degree that can help them achieve professional success. For Han, though, she said there were some requirements her kids had when going off to college, including the majors they were allowed to choose.
A mom banned her kids from choosing certain college majors because it's 'not a time to explore passions.'
"People are going to lose their collective minds when I tell you that I limited my children's choice of college majors. My husband thought I was crazy, and he was certain that our kids were going to rebel when I told him that they only had a choice out of four majors," explained Han in a TikTok video.
Han insisted that college is not just a time to explore passions, given how expensive it is. She admitted that she doesn't have a never-ending stash of money or time. Instead, she encouraged her kids to explore extracurricular activities and opportunities on campus, but when it came to their actual majors, that was different.
In the comments, she shared the majors her children were allowed to choose from: nursing, accounting, engineering, and computer science.
"College to me is a white-collar trade school, so you have to graduate with an in-demand skill. In the U.S. here, college can now cost close to $400,000," Han continued. "A year at NYU is close to $100K a year. At my Alma mater, Drexel in Philly, it's 90K a year. And that is a five-year school."
Most Americans struggle to afford paying for college.
According to a survey from the research organization New America, only half of Americans think they can afford a high-quality, affordable college education. When it comes to debt for Americans who have finished school, the percentage is why so many people are trying to avoid the high cost of tuition.
Nearly 43 million individuals have federal student loan debt, and the federal student loan portfolio now exceeds $1.6 trillion. It's no wonder that parents like Han are approaching college decisions with money on their minds. For many families, college is an actual investment.
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While it should be a time when young adults are allowed to figure out what they want to do, that's not always the case. But that makes it worse, because most 18-year-olds have absolutely no idea what they want to do career-wise at that age anyway. College should be the time to figure it out, but unfortunately, parents like Han have to make the difficult decision to put their foot down because of the financial stress.
The mom wanted to make sure her kids could support themselves.
"My homeschooled children did manage to earn full merit scholarships that covered tuition. And so for me also, knowing that it's so much easier to launch young adults, if they're able to earn money to financially support themselves, they can at that time figure out what they want to do and what their passions are."
Han added that it was her job as a mom to ensure her kids entered young adulthood with an in-demand skill. So she told her kids that. She assured them that she would provide her full financial support for the next four years while they were in school, but after that, she would need to focus on her own retirement.
As a mom, it was her duty to make sure her kids could provide for themselves once she couldn't anymore, at least financially. She allowed them to do whatever they wanted to do as adults, whether that meant becoming a singer, a writer, or even a gamer. But entering college, they had to focus on setting themselves up for a bright future.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
