Dear Prudence,
I’m a single mom of three: 17-year-old daughter, 13-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son. I work a full-time job and homeschool our oldest daughter and son. Well, our daughter is graduating this year and has been accepted to a university in our state. She is really smart and very versed with different cultures. At first, their father seemed happy about her graduation and her acceptance. The thing is, his mother has a problem with me homeschooling, saying that my daughter can’t function in a school setting. In particular, she believes my daughter is not social since she doesn’t have a boyfriend. But the truth is, she did dual-enrollment at a community college with other high schoolers. Additionally, my ex’s mother doesn’t want her to go to this college because it is not “black” enough.
Now, my ex has a problem with the plan and mentioned to our daughter that she needs to go to a HBCU instead of this college, even though it has what she wants to major in and minor in. It angers me that he would open his mouth to discourage her. I already went off on him because they have no say about her future. How can I encourage her to continue to go after her dreams?
—Trying to Keep My Cool