First World Problems: 21st Century Childhood Dream Jobs

By Judy Balan

May 25, 2016

First World Problems is a funny advice column for India’s first world population. Write to Judy (confidentially!) at contact@theswaddle.com if you’ve broken a nail, felt a little blue, yellow or green lately,
or had a strange encounter of the any-numbered kind.

PROBLEM: My daughter is 14 and she just told me she wants to be a you tube vlogger when she grows up. I’m not 100% I understand what that means. I want her to follow her dreams, but this doesn’t seem like a real profession. How do I point this out?

Awesome. Mine wants to be an architect on Multicraft. You think we’ll get discounted therapy sessions if we go together?

All right; I won’t mock your Halfway-Tiger-Mom concerns. I’m totally cool with the Multicraft thing — you know why? Because my daughter is 10 years old. When she was 4, she wanted to be an electrician just so she could drill holes in walls. So, I hope you get where I’m going with this.

Also, let’s not get into ‘real’ professions shall we? I’m pretty sure my parents would have had the same glazed look in their eyes had I told them in the 90s that I’d grow up and tell people how to deal with their first world problems. Actually, scratch that — they have that look right now.

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PROBLEM: I’m non-veg, but my best friend (and her whole family) is very veg. I was out to dinner with her and her parents recently, and I’m pretty sure her mother took bites from my non-veg dish the whole meal. I don’t think she realized. Should I have told her?

For what joy?

What you don’t know you’re eating can’t cause indigestion, it seems. Also, if she was enjoying the dish, it would have been rude to point out this fact and deprive her of it, don’t you think? I’d say: Wait till you go out with them again and she cutely enquires what that yummy dish was, so she can order it this time. Wait till she’s salivating and then break the news.

Written By Judy Balan

Judy Balan is a bestselling author and blogger popular for her quirky, often self-deprecatory humour. She is a self-proclaimed expert at American pop-culture with a sitcom/romcom quote for all of life’s situations. Judy believes that if she’s made you laugh, smile or even snort in the middle of a stressful day, her job here is done. Follow her at her website judybalan.com, on Twitter @judybalan, or on Facebook.

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