To be annoyed at my DM still treating me like a teenager?

It's normal. I find it annoying and sweet in roughly equal measures.

I think this is just a mum thing. I think my parents forget I'm not a teenager sometimes - even though I have children of my own! I don't mind it. They're very caring and generous, if a little over bearing.

There are some elements of this with all parents I think. I've grown up to be a responsible adult but my mum still reminds me of the time I ran out into the road when I was about 7 and how I hated phoning banks and asking for things in shops etc. as an older teenager.

I think they're all like it. My mum likes to remind me of when I was eating badly, messy, her opinion of my 'bad' clothing. Yet it annoyed her when her own mum did the same!

I have vowed not to do this to my children, it makes me feel like a sulky teenager rather than an adult.

My mum has often described me as "nocturnal".

I am, and I have always been, an early bird. If I sleep in past 7:30 I consider that a lie in.

She thinks she's funny. She's not.

Our mums sound so similar. I think it's just a mum thing. Let's hope we don't do it to our kids, eh?

I am 50 and my parents still want to look after me where they can, although these days practically its the other way around as Dad has been on and off ill since HE was 52 and Mum recently had a bad fall and seizure which has triggered dementia like symptoms and caused alot of upheaval etc as the roles reversed and Dad had to become her carer and take on the mental load of the house etc.

Cherish it - and find a way to deal with it so laugh and say yes of course I tidied - you can't be a messy teen when you have two kids of your own to contend with etc. Take joy from the fact they are still there to call after a night out. Smile at the nostalgia of opening parcels with relatives watching.

You won't ever really change what they do without hurting them - so learn to take the good and accept the indifferent and feel the love around the sentiment.

Oh no OP I completely agree with you. This sort of thing really drives me up the wall.

When I was 20 (and had moved out 2 years before), my grandma told me she was looking forward to us all staying in the same place on Christmas Day so that she could "watch me open my parcels". She said it with no irony whatsoever.

I disagree that this is the sort of thing that people should just put up with. I find it really infantilising. I will never be like this with my kids.

I totally get you. I think my mum can be an extreme version of this, it's like she's not learned a thing about me since I moved out when I was 18. Sadly some of the things she brings up as 'jokes' were actually symptoms of serious depression.

OP, I get that’s it’s annoying; my mum used to tell me to put a sweater on if it was cold, but you may well find yourself having similar thoughts when your children are all grown up. It’s hard to switch off being a parent.

Right up until he passed away I had to text or phone my dad after I'd been on a night out or after visiting him so he knew I was home safe. I think that's just a typical dad though.

Hi RoseLillian yes they are all like that. I now know that they don't mean to come across unkind but we prob left home in our 20's or younger and they remember us as untidy teens who have not grown up. I'm in my 50's and my mum still told me to be careful crossing the road to a neighbour's house! They just never stop worrying about you. My Mum isn't around now to "tell me what to do" in a nice way and I miss it so much. Just listen and nod then do your own thing anyway.