Brendan, this site may not be the best place for you to come and talk about your parents and grandparents. You have to remember that most people on this site are old enough to be your parents and grandparents. It is a generation gap that you just have not hit yet. Come on here to ask questions about how to do things and any problems you are having with a project.
It sounds to me that you already know what is going to be said and you are just looking for sympathy. My dad always use to tell me that sympathy is just a word between sh#$ and syphilis in the dictionary.
Do not listen to people who tell you to not pursue your hobby. If someone told me I needed to put baseball on hold I would hit them with a bat. Just be careful and clean up and you should be good to go with some compromises.
I'm a Joe of all trades. It's a first, it'll catch on.