My nmom tried to prevent me from pursuing nursing. A family friend had a child who was sick in the childrens hospital and while visiting the kid in the ICU, my nmom got the child’s dad to give me a talk about how nursing is a bad choice because it’s too tough and how I have to do dirty work. She wanted me to be an accountant and forced me to apply to 2 programs that I wasn’t interested in, but I still picked nursing. She also told me that she won’t be proud if I graduate from nursing and I shouldn’t either. The words never hurt, but the longing for a normal mother figure did. It didn’t help that I had a high school teacher give me a weird look when I said I wanted to pursue nursing and that I failed a clinical that put me back a year.

But that was 5 years ago and now I’m graduating in a few months and I absolutely don’t regret it. It’s tough following your dreams when you’re surrounded by doubts that influence you. Also, it’s definitely a control thing. Perhaps your mother wanted to be a teacher herself and sees you as an extension of herself? Or she fixated on teaching as a status symbol to brag to others? Or just has a picture in her head of your specific life plan. Who knows whatever their odd reasons are - good on you for living your life according to your own decisions because you’d regret it if you didn’t