I am not, I am just 22. And while my parents are professors (no CS), they are not so comfortable with computers as I am. Now, this is true for most parents - an

I am not, I am just 22. And while my parents are professors (no CS), they are not so comfortable with computers as I am. Now, this is true for most parents - and when someone uses the phrase "Explain it to your mom/dad" it is not meant to be interpreted as "Explain it to dumb cavemen" and it is not, in most cases (if the content of the actual explanation is not dumb). If some one has Bill Gates, Dennis Ritchie or Steve Jobs, they are (1) Lucky (2) Minority. I am not sure whether the statement "Explain it to your mom/dad" would be offensive to them. Point I am making is this: 1. Explain it to X. Where X is known to be a minority should be an acceptable statement. If substituting X with "Black people", "women" etc are the only cases, where the statement becomes offensive - it is unnecessarily tabooed. 2. (Also in reply to the other sarcastic reply to my comment) The mom/dad example is not the one where you have choice. The context of the statement has little to do with the choice and more to do with numbers in the industry.