[Atropos]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In Antwort auf:</font><hr />

In the present I have 2 sons, 2 years and 4 months old. I feel that I can spend more time with them as a poker player, but I don't know what is going to be the impact in their lifes for them to have a father that is a poker pro, or a father that is an University professor.


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I think I can comment on this point fairly well, since my father is a University professor. However I'm from Germany and it is possible that professors here and in the USA seem to be quite different (12 hours a week? Never saw my father work less than 100 hours a week, do you do any scientifical research?)

In Germany the respect for professors is very high, they are considered the mental elite of the country. Very often in my life when someone asked me what profession my father has, and I told them, many said "OMG [censored] WTF A UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR"

And you may not forget that their is the process of "stigmatism" (sry, english is obviously not my natural language). It basically means, that if you know someones social background you always have some prejudices about someone of that background too. You then will automatically check his behaviour if it is according to your prejudices...

This can be a bad thing and is one of the reason why minorities like immigrants often have it very hard. It can be a positive effect too: I'm sure that all my life I have been given more credit for my modest mental capabilities than I deserve, just because of my father. And there is also something like an aura of expectation: If the teacher makes you feel he totally expects you to fail the class, if you dont have any intrinsic motivation to show him otherwise you will fail.
If however you have the feeling that everybody respects you and expects you to be smart, you will try your best to live up to their expectations or to the honour of your familiy. At least that's what I did all my life.

All in all I can say that I have always been proud to live in a familiy where my father was a professor, and my mother doctor for medicin. I cant explain why since obviously they reached everything by their own force and I didnt contribute anything to it. It's just a personal experience.

HOWEVER I think I have to write the other side of the medal too. You mentioned you would possibly have more time for your kids, which is certainly a good thing. My father nearly never has any time for me, since he dedicated all his life and capabilities to the science. It possible would have been better for me if he didnt, but worse for the world in general. But possibly this doesnt apply to you being a professor that much if you only work 12 hours a week anyway...