As long time viewers of this blog know (okay, that's darned few people) this blog serves a lot purposes, while theoretically being focused on certain things that I research in a historical context. That's part of what I'm doing today.
I'm curious how many people who might stop in here occupy the same occupation as one of their parents, or grandparents. That is, how many of you followed a parent into a line of work, or perhaps ended up in that same line of work. And I'll extend that out to grandparents as well.
In posting this I'll note that very few of the people I know, outside of agriculture, have entered the same occupation as their parents. Very few. The exception to the rule is found in agriculture, where its very common. But otherwise, it doesn't seem to be. I know a few lawyers who had a parent who was a lawyer, but most of the lawyers I know who have adult children did not have those children enter their occupation. I can think, however, of a few. In medicine, I can think of a few physicians who had a parent who was a physician, but just a few. I can think of two dentists whose parents were dentist.
3 comments:
My grandfathers were farmers, and I'm farming right now, I don't know if I technically followed them into farming. But I probably wouldn't be farming right now if I hadn't been exposed to it as a kid or had access to family-owned land.
I also have an Mechanical Engineering degree, and although my father didn't have an engineering degree, by the time I graduated, a BSME would have been required to do his job. But, I don't know if I could say that I followed him into that sort of work (more like a similar way of thinking led both of us towards engineering).
I did know a lot of people in college that were getting engineering degrees and their fathers (a few mothers) were also engineers.
I think following into the family business is much more common than one might think -- restaurants, stores, welding shops, machine shops, auto repair, etc. In Salt Creek you have 2nd or 3rd generations - I can think of one welding shop where the grandson is now the owner. For years, some sons followed their fathers working for Amoco (Standard Oil).
Rich and Merideth, thank you for commenting.
And you raise interesting points.
In thinking about it, the way this plays out is interesting for various professions. I got to thinking about the ones I'm familiar with and its interesting in regards to them.
Of the lawyers I work with, only one is the child of another lawyer, but oddly enough, that parent never practiced law and might not have even been licensed to do so. In thinking about the children of those lawyers I've worked with, I can think of two, out of quite a collection of children overall, who did become lawyers. Our senior partners had quite large families, and of those families only one child became a lawyer. A former partner also had a child become a lawyer, and then she became a judge. She started off as a school teacher.
With farmers and ranchers kids coming up in the business seem almost the rule.
I've deposed a fair number of oilfield workers who, now that Meredith mentions it, were multi generational in that occupation. At the same time, however, I've also known quite a few lawyers who came from the same demographic. But, for that matter, I've known a lot of lawyers whose parents were farmers or ranchers as well, and that was once very common here.
I also know some families of oil men. That is, people who own production or operation companies, and it seems there that children entering those very companies is pretty common.
In families of dentists, as noted, I can think of a couple of kids who followed in a parents footsteps, one boy and one girl. However, I can also think of one large family where the father was a long time respected dentist and not one child followed that career path.
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