Parents just don't understand

At a later conversation my mom again attempted to derail my plans by firmly stating that 'you can't change your career and focus on your family. You have to pick one. ' She means that if I want to change my career then I have to continue working full time and take classes in the evening. Which would mean that I could never see my kids. 'You can't have both, it has to be one or the other.'

These conversations with her were really getting to me, until I realized that parents are supposed to be suspicious, antagonizing, and play the devil's advocate. And children should provide the same service to parents, like when I told my mom not to pay for the plane ticket for her internet boyfriend to visit her in America for a month. She did not follow my advice. That ended in disaster, with the guy being a total male chauvinist whom she served like a king the entire time. He never reimbursed her for the plane ticket and when he got back to Romania he wrote her an email about how ugly she was.

Actually I've been following my parents advice constantly. Here are some gems that particularly remember:

"Buy the house, real estate is the safest investment, it will always go up in value" - mom 2006

"Purchase the most expensive house you can afford because the value will increase more than cheaper houses." - dad 2006

They are also the ones who got me into IT.

Maybe i should stop following their advice for a while? Maybe their knowledge is like the dinosaurs.