I encouraged my kids to study hard and if they wanted to go to college they would have to pay for it themselves. but if they studied hard in school that could pay off. My oldest though smart enough didn't want to go to college and wanted to start her life she wants to be self employed and you don't need to go to college for that. My youngest daughter wants to be a chemist and studied hard and got nearly a full ride. She has to pay $882 a semester of her expenses which isn't bad at all considering that includes room and board too. My son also was done with school, he still doesn't know what he wants to do in life, but in the mean time he is all about gaining experience. He has his first job outside of working for the family. As we didn't allow outside work while in high school we wanted them to focus on their study, so we only allowed our kids to work in the family businesses while in school and of course all of them are on steemit.
Oh totally off topic, but I was on Youtube a bit ago, and came across this old movie and the title made me think of your family. It is called Five Little Peppers and how they grew