I'm never understanding parents who force kids to do things they don't like.

I was talking to a coworker about my college days and how I got to take 3 electives in the course of my bsc and ended up realising I would never do graphics in my life (I was in an applied computer science programme). My coworker mentioned that they never got to do what they wanted and ended up doing something they didn't like cause their parents were unreasonable. They got to do a "fun" masters but still not in a field they were passionate about. <br><br>While talking they mentioned that each semester, they hated most classes, it was going through motions and they got great grades. It killed my soul to hear this. Their parents made them do something they hated for 5.5 years of their life straight out of high school. <br><br>It's so fucking sad. I feel like these parents who have very little interest in their children's happiness and instead want them to follow some path that makes the parents proud are horrible and abusive. While parents are required to provide for their children (and in that sense, are necessary) these days parents are in no way required for a child to thrive in life. <br><br>Especially when kids know what they want, why would parents force them to do things they are not passionate about? If a kid wants to be a baker why the fuck would a parent force them into a high paying job in finance? They would thrive more and be happier as a baker than they would as an investment banker.