What's interesting is the the OP's parents have been using computers for a decade. They're not beginners per se, but they seem (I'm guessing) to have internalized some UI artifacts from the Web of 10 years ago.
If this is the case then the problem is not helping people who are beginners, but helping people who have possibly stopped reconsidering the UI they are actually seeing and who instead are locked into habits they built up earlier.
