What's with the worrying on my behalf? (mostly lighthearted)

[odilethecrocodile]

"But we worry about you!" What is really going on when a person who doesn't know me well says this?

Dear MNers, what's a good reply to give them to keep them off my back? I wasn't depressed before but now I'm getting depressed about their "worrying"!

(Not dripfeeding, there is no backstory )

[StinginBelle13]

'There's no need to worry about me, I'm not worried about me so you shouldn't be, either.'

Or, alternatively, I'm not worried about you so don't worry about me.' The bluntness might work!

[odilethecrocodile]

What it could be, I suppose, is that DP are trying to keep me firmly in the child role, and they are the parents who have to take 'responsibility' for any fuckups. I am 41, FFS.

[highinthesky]

Don't your parents know you v well then? They obviously think they do!

[odilethecrocodile]

I don't think it has much to do with me, I think it's their own anxiety as they get older spilling onto me. But what to say to them in a way they can understand?

[highinthesky]

Probably nothing, aside from explicitly telling them that you cannot be held to account for their self-inflicted/ unexplained anxiety. They are beyond changing what is an established habit at this stage, so just live with it. This anxiety is theirs and should not become yours.

It would be easier if you had siblings for them to be worried about, though! It's what we call "sharing the love" amongst mine