I vividly remember my own shock and incomprehension when I first encountered this attitude - that young people need to challenge, overturn, or break free from parental authority. I still have to remind myself that some people think like this, because it's so alien to my understanding of the world.

That's interesting. I come from the entirely opposite side -- it's not really comprehensible to me how and why parents feel the need to run their childrens' lives past late teens. And here you are, in the bit-flesh :-)