All through their lives, I’ve done it for them. Set-up new hardware, installed new software and acted as in-house technician whenever things went wrong. As a result, I have a family of digital illiterates.

I'm guilty of this. So very guilty. But then, if I didn't help them, they would just become embittered, and make the problem worse by calling in the Geek Squad, after which I would likely have to do even more work to undo whatever damage is inflicted.

My only saving grace is that I try to provide systems that allow them to experiment. I tell them, "You will never be able to break this just by using it," and they take some small comfort in it. Telling them that, and then managing their fight-or-flight reaction as I recommend to them a Linux desktop is another story entirely.