Ask Helen
Arrange a family meeting and encourage everyone to listen to each other with respect
As someone who has been a social worker, mother, wife and divorcee I have been around the block a few times. I’m humbled to answer your questions and feel that if a problem can be shared it can be halved – at the very least.
It’s normal for parents to have high, if unrealistic, ambitions for their children. Many hope their children will find a great career after a good education, and want their children to be happy. Finding the balance is not always straightforward!
Your granddaughter does sound like an intelligent girl. Not only does she want a decent trade, but she is looking further afield and hopes to run her own salon. There are people who have gone to university and then into hairdressing, and there are hairdressers who have then gone to university. Someone who knows what they want to do in life will be motivated to be the best. Many young people have no idea about their future which is certainly not the case here.
The current climate has put additional strain on the jobs market as well as the university environment. Both have been compromised. It will be difficult for her parents to accept that their bright daughter does not want to take the path they hoped for her. Have you had a multi-generational full-on family confab and gone through the pros and cons of immediate choices and longer term choices? If not, why not arrange such a meeting and encourage each person to lay out their views and to listen with respect? With your support she will go far whatever she does.