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I just read a really interesting article from a parent's point of view of what it's like to have a child choose a career of professional internet poker player vs. continuing with college. The article can be found here:

My Son's Gamble

I was able to read it on my iPhone without registering for the NYT site, but I would suggest you register because the article is definitely worth reading. The mom initially goes through complete panic as she sees here son neglect his studies and his tennis (he's a division I tennis player) and stays up all night playing poker online. The kid, Dan (anyone know him?), alienates himself from the family and stays in his room sleeping all day -- sound familiar? He tells his mom that he no longer plays poker.

The mom eventually figures out how to break in to his Full Tilt account and change the password, locking Dan out of the $12k balance. It's only then that Dan talks to her and admits that he is still playing. He convinces FT to let him back in and his mom soon realizes that it's pointless to fight Dan on this since she'll never win. Instead, she educates herself on the game and eventually learns to support him.

There's much more to the article and I would like to hear your thoughts. I assume many of you have similar stories. Let's face it, most parents' dreams of what their children will do for a career do not usually include Professional Poker Player! I have a 14 year-old son who loves games, is extremely competitive and is obsessed with making lots of money one day soon. I've introduced him to poker and he loves it. I'm obviously much more experience with poker than the average parent, but do I want my son playing professional poker in his teens? Hmmm... that's a tough one.