Yep - I said it!  It is quite literally part of your DNA to trust your motherly instinct and yet almost daily we seek the validation of other parents.  And, in the same breath we tell our kids, "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you follow them?"  We tell them that their friends' opinions don't matter but that's not what we're modeling for them.  You want independent thinkers?  BE an independent thinker.