OK here comes the world's angriest rant. I decided I wanted to join the military age 16 and fought my parents over it. In the end we compromised over finishing my highers and joining the TA. I've left school and applied for the TA. Everything was going well until cutbacks meant the TA would no longer except under 18s. So now I'm unemployed -hooray! The logical thing to do in this economic climate would be to go into the military now as I'm already going in when i'm 18. However my bloody parents still won't budge. I've told them the alternative is living off jobs seekers for a year and lying on the couch and they said they would prefer that to me going into the military! They told me all this bad stuff about what happens to soldiers in basic training (bullying) and guess what I actually listened to them. I researched the stories they were talking about so I had all the facts but decided this was not going to deter me. I then told my parents good things the military does such as helping Afghan women get an education and expected them to research this like I had taken the time to do for them but they refused. They tell me everything good I hear is 'army propoganda'. They cannot see the irony of the situation when they tell me I'm looking at the military with a rose tinted view - I've bothered to research bad things and they won't research good things- they are the ones who are looking at it one sided! How can I make them see this and change their minds?