Someone who is in the profession of guiding people through the after-effects of narcissistic parents, has just proposed a theory. Using childish terms to speak of me, and even calling her younger siblings "boy" and "girl" when they are older adults, allows her to maintain the illusion that she herself is still young. If she admits that her siblings are practically senior citizens, and I am middle-aged, she would have to give up the illusion that she is a new mother in her 20's with little children who need her to take care of them, and face the fact that she is old. Particularly hard for her now, maybe, since her latest husband died almost 2 months ago after he put up with her for 17 years. (Qualifies him for sainthood, right there.) What are the thoughts on that?