I do not wish this to be controversial, as the aim of this is not to start or support an argument but rather to push people to think out of their current limited perspectives. "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." I came across this, and although its origin is unknown, I wholeheartedly agree with it. I understand your concerns. Neither is your elder child a fish, nor is his/her living a happy life equivalent to climbing a tree. The problem with such quotes is that they do not account for what actually is happening around us, so let's talk more in real-world terms.
Being a doctor is a respected profession, and so is being an engineer or a developer. The question here is whether you are willing to be true to yourself. Don't confuse yourself by adding justifying arguments to your choice. "I want to save lives and so I want to become a doctor," and thus you suggest that the people who designed the hospital or who engineered that life-saving machinery did nothing to help that cause? And if you say, "I am an introvert and I like working with numbers," then you are suggesting that the developers never need to interact and communication skills are not important? I am deliberately not mentioning money here, as we will address it later. Ask yourself: if I take money out of the equation, what would you do? If you can't find an answer to that, come back later to this very text after you find the answer, and then read it again. Finding your interests is an important step in deciding your career, because we all want to live a happy life and not a miserable one.
We all get suggestions, and someone with an ample amount of free time would even provide you with the numbers and probability ratios. 70% of the people who chose software development are happy in their lives; 80% of those who chose to become chartered accountants are living good lives. Unfortunately, no one is considering your interest in cricket, or in writing, or in swimming at this point, because that's not their concern; they are reflecting their beliefs and what they grew up listening to on your career choice. Only when you are genuinely interested in a profession can you make a really good career out of it, and then, when you have walked halfway down the road, you will not have any regrets as to "what if I went for those cricket trials, what if I published that 'Chicken Karhai recipe' video, what if I auditioned for singing or for acting." They don't care about that secret wish you will hold on to for the rest of your life that you never even gave a try to.
Let us talk about money now, as that is what you are dying to tell me: one profession pays more than others. You are wrong to some extent. With the right mindset, a tailor would beat your best software developer. Money eventually is decided by how much you want to earn, and no, that tailor would not be a lucky individual to have surpassed a software developer in net yearly earnings or in net assets; they just understood the game better. You will earn how much you want, and thus is the law of life. Thus, earning should never decide your career. No, Zohaib, not everyone can start a business; some just want to do a respectable job that pays their bills. One thing I want to reveal to you: it's a creator's economy now. You build, you market, you find the right buyer and sell. So whether you start a business, freelance, or work a job, in all cases you are, to some extent, doing the same thing. My father always said you need capital to start a business, but so did we to complete that bachelor's degree.
If I started suggesting career options, that would ruin the very gist of this piece of writing. I want you to explore, I want you to learn, and when you find that thing you are very passionate about and wish to do, you get to the next chapter of life: how to build something on top of it, and later chapters would be how to market what you have built and then sell it. If you are really interested in your work, that is how you become extremely good at it and then grow in it. Even animals can find food and shelter; don't push your children to do things they do not like just for the sake of how glamorous they look from the outside.