[diminium]

Wow, in this case, I stand by my statement 'The world is big, huge, and interesting. Don't think its as small as the adults want you to think it is' even more strongly now.

"pitfalls that we know are there, drugs, debt....study or whatever"

Congratulations! Out of the infinite amount of things in the world that are good and the infinite amount of things in the world that are bad, this parent just taught the kid to worry ONLY about drugs, debt, and homework.

If there's one thing about children I can say without a doubt is that they are the ultimate copy machines. The thing they are completely focused on desperately trying to copy? Their parent.

So in reality, the best possible way for a parent to teach their children their dreams they want is to personally live those dreams. However, for 97% of people in this world, this so hard that they don't want to do it. Thus they choose the easier alternative - lying. This, ironically, then teaches the kid this technique as well since kids, well, copy them.