Your parents’ fears were packed for a trip they took decades ago. Love them, and pack your own bag.

The warnings you grew up with were built for a world with different risks, different work and different rules, and they were an act of care when they were made. Fear does not update itself, so it gets handed down intact and applied to a landscape it was never measured against. Taking their caution seriously is reasonable. Treating it as current information is another matter.

Ask what specifically they are afraid of, and whether it still holds where you are standing. Keep what survives the question and set the rest down gently. Respect and obedience are not the same thing.