When family says “get a real job,” they’re usually scared, not cruel. Show them a plan along with the passion.

Worry often comes out sounding like dismissal. Behind it is usually fear about rent and health and whether you will be all right, from someone with no way to picture how this work turns into a living. Hearing it as contempt is understandable and often not accurate. Most of the time they are not arguing with your ability but with uncertainty they cannot see past.

Show them the structure and not only the hope: what you are learning, what it could become, how you would know if it stopped working. You do not need permission, and a concrete answer lowers the temperature faster than defending yourself does.