I come from the Bible belt, and was religious as a teenager before life circumstances led me to quickly and dramatically turn away from faith. When that curtain

I come from the Bible belt, and was religious as a teenager before life circumstances led me to quickly and dramatically turn away from faith. When that curtain was pulled, suddenly many of the adults in my life seemed misguided at best, and downright evil at worst. But college gave me a different view on this. I went to a small university, where some professors made a real effort to mentor students - not only to make them better academics, but better people too. These professors were people I really looked up to. I think they empathized more with students, recognizing that while they did have advice to give, context matters - some may be relevant nowadays, some may not. They also were quite analytical; they'd only truly believe some advice they gave if they'd spent lots of time critiquing, testing, and thinking about it. I guess I mention all this to say: respect for someone's advice must be earned. It sounds like your family did not earn this, so IMO you have the right idea.