DIANA, HELENA, MONT.

DEAR ABBY: Although this seldom happens, I disagree with your response to "Worried Sick in Pflugerville, Texas" (April 18). Her 18-year-old daughter, "Cameron," wants to make a road trip from Texas to California after her graduation.

By the time my daughter graduated from high school and turned 18, she had already been working for two years and had bought her own car. I was a single parent, and she had also helped with the rent, groceries and utilities -- and still managed to graduate with a 3.9 GPA. She went to San Francisco, Chicago and Las Vegas that summer after graduation -- then returned home, got her own apartment, and continued working at the same grocery store another two years before deciding her career path.

When our children turn 18, they are (by law) adults, and should not have to answer to their parents about their vacation plans. If parents have placed some responsibility on their children's shoulders while growing up, they usually have their feet firmly planted on the ground by the time they are 18.

Mom should untie those apron strings and allow Cameron to shine with the lessons she taught her. -- DIANA, HELENA, MONT.

Any parent who tries to stand in the way of their 18 year old kid's road trip plans deserves to have an 18 year old who wants to travel to bastions of sin like San Francisco, Las Vegas and... well, not so much Chicago.

A road trip is an apt metaphor for life: long stretches of boredom interspersed with moments of photographed exhilaration and frequent compromises to what should be a healthy diet. And looking back on it, you only remember the good parts.

I think for most parents though, it's not a question of micromanaging their children's vacation plans, as you suggest. An 18 year old girl traveling cross-country alone invites all sorts of disasters. And I'm not sure if she becomes less of a target by traveling in a carload of 18 year old girls. Chances are, she won't get dismembered by the highway drifter hiding in the shrubs when her '92 Celica breaks down at night. But it's understandable for parents to worry.

The truth is, your daughter is far more likely to come back with a treatable sexually transmitted disease or a pregnancy termination dilemma than she is to become a victim of roving highway serial killers. Most likely, she'll become enamored with some loser who seems special because he's from a totally different state and then rack up expensive long-distance phone bills and engage in lewd instant messaging sessions before coming to her senses and getting knocked up by a local boy instead.

Your advice, readers?