Great to hear from you , Some good stuff going on in your sitch and you are right In your approach. Let him do some work And when the expectations circus rolls in to town , just stay off the merry go round .
I realy do believe that if they think the LBS is waiting for them no matter what then they are free to carry on regardless with the illusion they can always go back if it all goes wrong.
Take away the lifeline for real and its time to face the concequences of decisions made.