Topaz
I'm not going to get to trading insults with you - with a name like yours you sound like a child of hippies where I am old enough to have been one of the hippies.
Your description of me would not be recognised by anyone who knows me - in fact, my "kids" laugh because I need to know that they are safe all the time. But my aim has always been to support them not smother them. After my son came back from Sri Lanka, he joined London Broncos RL team as an apprentice and stayed there for 3 years through to 1st team squad. I supported him at every game he played in those 3 years, travelling 400 miles every other weekend to watch the team play away.Now he's at University 200 miles away but he phones me every day, as does my 24 year old daughter who is 250 miles away. And when she comes to your end of the world (which I have heard is wonderful) to backpack around the Antipodes after Christmas for 6 months, I will probably have to tell her not to phone me so often and email me instead. I certainly won't stop her going even though they have discovered a nest of Bin Laden terrorists in Sydney! (You see, you are not immune from the war, the whole world isinvolved).
Hope your children will be just as loving when the time comes for them to fly the nest.