Well noted L4ugh, from my view I see that as highly truthful from my situation; though that may only be speculative and unarguable in other cases. A parent should ideally want to be a major factor in their child's life but it is absolutely true that they cannot hold their hand every step of the way in life. We all know of that one pair of parents that record literally everything their child does from ages 1-10. In my perspective, I guess children aren't really learning "everything" there is out there; some things the youth have to experience them self. Educational facilities fill their heads with knowledge about the typical four school subjects and their interests when it comes to electives, but outside that; they're clueless. I'm a junior in high school and within one year I'll be fresh out of high school. Nobody ever taught me to do my taxes, how to play an instrument, do my own laundry, cook using the stove or oven, even cut my own hair on my own; I had to learn by myself - taught myself through trial and error. It's even a little sad to say I have very few friends that have stuck with me all twelve years. However, I wouldn't have been able to learn all that if I hadn't enabled myself to. I forced myself to learn these basic skills that others think would be something naturally learned on their own. Is it a bit pathetic to say there are people older than me that don't know how to cook anything other then in a microwave? I for one appreciate that my brothers have helped me along and taught me things about life that they didn't know when they were my age, but some of the things that I've come across - I had never been prepared for beforehand and ended up crashing and burning all the way. Still, I believe children these days are just far too sheltered... People say we learn by making mistakes... but how can we learn if we can never make those mistakes? Also we're enabled to learn from others' mistakes, but still - even then, what you learn from others is vastly limited to your own experience.