How do we guide our daughter?

My wife and I are raising two incredible daughters we have made lots of great choices so far and now we fear our oldest, 13, is making a poor choice.

She has been a dancer since she was 2, they both are. Our high school system has a arts & tech speciality program and she has always planned on going to that. She wants to continue to after school, and hopefully get a dance scholarship to college. She did a tour yesterday and came home all excited about the cosmetology program there, and that is what she wants to do. My wife and I are beside ourselves. She said this would be a backup for after she is done dancing.

Our biggest issue is that there is plenty of opportunity for cosmetology education later in life, but she would be passing up on other opportunities now to persue that. Closing doors in exchange for one that will never be closed and is readily available. I told her that I have always enthusiastically supported her, and it should tell her something that we are not enthusiastic about this. We want her to really think long term big picture about this, but she is a 13 year old who likes pretty primping and painting nails.

So, does anyone have any advice. Right now we are at the point of apply for every program that you have any interest in, and pick one later after more research. She is pretty bummed out that we are not on board with this.

Thanks.

EDIT: people seem to be misunderstanding, so I will try to clarify. We are not high pressure dance parents. Please remove any "dance moms" stereo types from your mind's. We support and encourage her dancing, but never have pressured her to do more than she wants. We are also not doing that now. We have not even suggested the performing arts path at the school. We feel that the opportunity for cosmetology education will be there later, there are half a dozen training centers for adults in our city.

To do that path NOW though, she is sacrificing traditional education l, which closes doors. She is sacrificing other specialized programs at the center, which closes doors, for a door that will be open later in life.

She has never expressed interest in cosmetology before yesterday, and is trying to make a big decision based on a short presentation and her emotions.

I hope that helps

Submitted October 02, 2019 at 03:17PM by jumper501 https://ift.tt/2owRuyk