'If my 18 year old son is making mummy do the research for him, is he really ready for an airline pilot career?'
That is rather an assumption isn't it? How do you know the parent isn't the sons father? In any event, the questioner uses the term "we" which would suggest if it weren't already clearly stated, that more than one person is seeking answers to the questions posed.
It strikes me as eminently sensible that parents would want to use available resources to ask questions, before they as a family decide to embark on any particular course of action. Indeed when it comes to the qualities inherently desirable in an airline pilot, not getting trapped into one assumption and the use of available resources to aid in decision making are quite positive, don't you think?