The joys of growing up

Desperate for my own place, I tired of waiting for the love of my life and instead bought with the help of the people who have loved me all my life - my parents (Reader, don't marry him, February 16).

I may have walked rather than been carried over the threshold of my new pad, but I still needed my dad to tile the bathroom, mum to vinyl the kitchen floor, friends to advise on colour schemes, and a lodger to help with the mortgage. Being single, through choice or otherwise, does not necessarily equate with "going it alone".
Georgina Barnes
London

· Children must separate themselves from their parents before they can grow up (Parents, February 12). We psychologists call this "individuation". Though disturbing and at times hurtful, once done reconciliation with ones parents is possible, even likely. Andrew Purvis can take solace in that fact that his children are individuating at the proper age.

Were he any more successful in postponing that all-too-human phase of development through his efforts to remain cool and attractive to his teenagers, their rejection of him would only occur later - perhaps in their 20s - when the expressions are less benign and more harmful to their interests. So, congratulations to Mr Purvis. His kids are slashing their residual umbilical cords right on schedule.
Dave Corey
Lake Oswego, Oregon