"And it's much better for their absence, yes." Overbearing or simply incompetent, there were a lot of parents who had done their share of damage before shipping their spawn off to be educated. Some spoiled, some so terrified of failure that they could hardly dress themselves ... And he didn't want to cope with the parents, either. "I'm sure I can't imagine what I might have done, had I been trapped under the parental eye for quite that long."