re: Is anyone else not pushing their kids to attend college?

Our oldest (now 30) did not know what he wanted to do until middle of Senior year.
He decided he wanted to learn a trade and was able to attend trade school for welding after Christmas break.
After graduation he landed a job with a fab shop and would work during the day and attend a CC (Community College) in the evenings to earn his welding certs.
After about 6mo his CC instructor hooked him up with a job interview. Our oldest tested out and went to work with a construction company and eventually achieved his goal to work on the gas pipeline as a welder by age 20.
He saved his money and was able to live off his perdiem for a little over 4yrs. He moved up in the business and now is 1 of their inspectors and still makes bank. (Base pay 85k + perdiem + monthly fuel allowance + 1,150mo vehicle allowance)
He married at age 25, bought a house, he and his wife has 2 girls and is debt free. Works 10 days/off 4 and is less than 3hrs away from home so he comes home every weekend.

Our youngest graduated last weekend with a Civil Engineering degree and will be working with the same company as our oldest as a project manager. Starts in June.

Bottom line: know what your kids interests are and help steer them in that direction. College degree may or may not be needed and our definition of success is not on how much you make, but rather if you enjoy/love what your doing.