Be_Prepared, I love your reasonings with over-protective parents. With your permission I'd like to write it up as a post on my blog.
-Blast
No problem, anything I write here that might possibly help someone is public as far as I'm concerned.
I am amazed that even some of the most paranoid and over-protective parents can be reasonable when you paint the right "future" picture for them, to help them cut the cord, so to speak

[yeah, I'm talking about a cord of wood of course...]