Is it unreasonable to expect that DD speaks to me like an adult

Even if mine are occasionally paternal, it's usually in a good-natured, teasing manner. GD is very caring, takes my arm in a crowd, but then she used to do that when she was ten.

It's not nasty at all! It's all done in a light-hearted teasing way, and I guess I play along a bit - all part of the family dynamic. I'm treated with respect and love, and when the chips are down, they know who the boss is!

Like you Bagitha, I can bite!

oh well, that's what's important, hummingbird.

Well the frame of mind I am in today I think I will be biting back

This happens to me in reverse!! I am 62 and my 86 year old Mother still treats me as if I am 6!!

barrow

Ever since their teenage years I have had to take a deep breath at times, in fact I am occasionally pleasantly suprised when I am listened to with respect or understanding and spoken to like an adult again. I think it just comes with the territory.

glass

barrow, my mother is the same. It's probably just as well I live a long way away from her.

Oh definitely, hummingbird and Annobel! Mine also do it in a light-hearted way! My granddaughter, when she was about 16 or so, was trying to explain to me how to upload photos from my camera onto the computer. She went through it twice, then said, "Right, Grandma - you do it now, while I watch you." She'd been working part-time in a Play Centre, and I think she was using her newly found knowledge on me....

Glass - that's when the real swearing starts in our house!

'fricking' as in "don't fricking shout at me" is a bad swear word, isn't it?