I certainly would not encourage my daughter to become a go pro. But if she wants that by herself I would try to convince her not to do it with the argument that something you like as a hobby may not give you the same taste if it becomes your profession.
If she insists, I would forbid her to eat icecream for a week
But she has a very stubborn personality, that I can tell even now, when she is not even 4. I hope she won't get such ideas.

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If you say no, Elwood and I will come here for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the week.

I think American parents have a tendency to be afraid to "push" their children in various areas that we percieve are good for them, other than generic academics.

I think this tends to be a mistake - I think we should push our kids to excel in many things, or, at least at minimum, expose them to many things - "force" them to try, and see where it leads.

Then you increase/decrease effort levels depending on the child's interest, talent and value of the activity.

The best thing you can give your child is something they are passionate about. Hopefully it will be something worthwhile, and, while I am not sure go qualifies high on the worthwhile list, I am not sure I would leave it off either.

My support for a pro go career would be cautious, and caliberated by the about of talent and effort the child put in. Combined with language learning - which would be a must, I am confident that other doors would open even if the pro effort failed.

By the way, I should mention that I have been an abject failure thus far in practicing what I preach.

I'd be a mean dad and explain the odds against being able to even make it to pro, much less make a living as a pro but if she seemed like she really, really wanted to for quite a while and made (and stuck to) a backup plan for at least minimal education/career development (even at the level of getting a GED and planning on community college for an education path) I'd be as supportive as I could.

Not to say that there would be annual trips to Asia for "trial runs" or anything like that. I think the music comparison from earlier is quite appropriate. Ask your child:
1) Do you love this?
2) Do you really love this?
3) Are you willing to define your life by this?
4) Will you still be able to eat if it doesn't work out (for any reason, external or internal)?

If all the answers are "Yes" and stay "Yes" for quite a while, then go for it!

Bruce "Bad Dad" Young

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Currently reading: Plutarch, Cerebus, and D&Q 25th Anniversary

I honestly can't think of a single thing I was truly passionate about when I was a child, unfortunately . Unless Goldeneye counts.

Hmmm. Mayyyyybe I could count camping, fantasy novels, and Final Fantasy 3/vi. I wouldn't want writing to be my profession, and the other two don't really build towards any career I'm sure I'd want.

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Someday I want to be strong enough to earn KGS[-].

I can think of things that I was passionate about as a kid, but none where I showed dedication.

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Occupy Babel!

Well, you know, I almost had a lvl 93 Classic Hardcore Sorceress back then in Dialo 2 1.10...

But yeah, I think a little bit parental pressure isn't a bad thing. Maybe I could play the piano by now like almost my entire family, if my parents hadn't accept a single and not backed up by anything "No".

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

That's an interesting question. I don't think it is exactly a binary equation. If one of my sons winds up with the discipline, calculation ability, and language skills to actually survive a trip to study in Asia before he's graduated high school I think he's got the chops for college if he washes out as an insei. We've got a few advantages in terms of what we can do along the way. My wife is an educator who can home-school. We have family in the greater Los Angeles area they could summer with if a professional in the So-Cal region would be willing to take one of them as a student.

In those regards it wouldn't really be a burn-your-bridges scenario if either boy had the desire and the discipline to study Go to that level. Then again, that could impede their ability too, but as a parent I'd much rather them have life-skills, values, and fundamental academics in their back pocket no matter what profession they went into.

- Marty Lund

Or maybe I would have had a car accident resulting in the loss of six fingers, two years after learning to perfectly play Beethoven's Rage Over a Lost Penny. But, right, I could blame the driver then - always nice to have anybody to blame ; )

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

I expect not to have to get into the exact situation, because by the time my daughter is old enough for this to be real discussion, the landscape may have changed so drastically as to make the question irrelevant. (E.g., computers may become so good at go that the occupation withers or disappears, even compared to today. Or, we could be living in some kind of Mad Max dystopia that makes any profession that we'd consider viable/legal today seem silly. Or, most likely, she'll just not show sufficient interest.)

I think some other posters are correct in that American parents tend to be allergic to any kind of early hyper-specialization. In this way, becoming a go professional is just another kind of hoop dream that has to be put in perspective. That being said, I don't think one's youth should be spent doing things that are entirely pragmatic, otherwise we'd all be selling drywall. So I'd try to put her in sufficient contact with actual professionals (especially recent ones) who'd be able to give her a perspective of what she'd be getting into. I don't get the impression that a lot of western pros are exactly encouraging their students to become pros.

All I know is that if it does come up, there are (at least) two opinions that will outweigh mine.

Chess says, "Hi!" Just because computers are good at chess doesn't mean that there are less people going pro or staying pro.

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My plan to become an SDK is here.

If you're happy doing what you do then you're never in a bad/difficult situation.

But if you're forced to do a job you hate to pay the bills because your go career didn't pan out and there are no other jobs available, you won't be happy with what you do.

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We don't know who we are; we don't know where we are.
Each of us woke up one moment and here we were in the darkness.
We're nameless things with no memory; no knowledge of what went before,
No understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be.

... then just spend a bit less, so at least you don't have to do the crappy job full time! I'm not convinced that you have to live a luxurious life to be happy. (though admittedly, living cheaply might be more difficult in the US than it is here in Europe, that I don't know.)

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My name is Gijs, from Utrecht, NL.

When in doubt, play the most aggressive move

[mod]A post was removed due to the questionable nature of the joke it carried.[/mod]

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Someday I want to be strong enough to earn KGS[-].

It almost goes without saying.

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We don't know who we are; we don't know where we are.
Each of us woke up one moment and here we were in the darkness.
We're nameless things with no memory; no knowledge of what went before,
No understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be.

It's harder to just make that choice in the US--it doesn't just mean sacrificing luxuries, but it also complicates your healthcare and your child's education. If you're making a choice between really high status jobs (doctor, lawyer) and something a little less prestigious, you can just cut luxuries. But if you actually meant getting a blue-collar job, that's quite different.

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Occupy Babel!

Good question, I'd probably say him than one passion shouldn't kill all other ones... Several passions is better to avoid big deceptions.

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Try the FICGS Play Go app on your Android phone to play your moves from anywhere.

If any of my children show both passion and aptitude for Go, Chess, Music, Starcraft, Soccer or any other skill where true careers are one in a million, my support will be proportionate to their talent and ability. I would most likely encourage a 7 year old Go player who's hit 3 dan already, but probably not an 11 year old who's still 8k (for a career anyway, as a hobby it would be awesome )

I will always encourage my children to strive for success in anything, but I also want to teach them pragmatism

</lurk>

I've never been to the US, but I have heard this kind of story quite often. It always amazes me that people in the US accept this. I've heard people say that the US is supposed to be the country of opportunities, but that seems kind of tough if following your dreams means that you have to fear for your healthcare and for your children's education! It feels wrong to not have at least a basic backup for those who don't succeed in achieving their goal on the first try.

By the way, by "blue collar jobs" you mean people that actually work with their hands, right? They are super-important to a country! Is your state also one of those places where a factory worker cannot afford a good healthcare insurance? I've never understood that it's apparently considered all right to collectively under-reward hard-working people to such an extent.

But yeah, if you live in the US, then maybe it does indeed make sense to discourage your children from following their dreams.

The world remains a strange place

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My name is Gijs, from Utrecht, NL.

When in doubt, play the most aggressive move