Good gosh, I had almost the exact argument with my high school friend, word for word, but minus any mom participation. I never convinced her.
We had another argument, too, about those little bee-like flies you sometimes see buzzing around flowers. She said her dad said they were “baby bees”. I said that bees were fully-grown when they left the hive, having passed their infanthood in the form of larvae and pupae. She instantly got pissed that I would doubt anything that her dad said. FTR, her dad was an ignorant, bullshitting alcoholic.