My mother is 71 and while she looks frail (one of those little women - I can't imagine her ever having been pregnant, let alone with twins), she is perfectly capable of, say, shoveling the house and driveway out from under 3+ feet of snow. On her own. Or sawing up the old iron water heater in the basement. On her own. Or balancing precariously on the edge of the chimney to clip tree branches. On her own. And dismissing any child who dares to try to help her.

The pretense of frailty is like babies being cute to get what they want.