Sometimes it's a pet peeve of mine when parents wish their children would stay little and not grow up. It is such a common feeling, though, that I can't call it wrong. The challenge for me is not being too hasty jumping to conclusions. Most people are not thinking of such extremes when they say that. It isn't that they always want to be in control of their children, and don't want them independent. It's that they enjoy/enjoyed the child phase so much, they almost don't want it to end. Most people might *say* they wish their 40- and 50-year-old sons and daughters were children again, but they wouldn't *actually* want to still be taking care of them, cooking and cleaning for them, buying all of their clothes, making all of their decisions for them, etc. And if they do, that is not healthy.

Said one of my therapists, "My mother will tell me I'm still her baby, but she doesn't actually treat me like a baby. She doesn't call me Michael-Michael-Motorcycle like she did when I was little."

Contrast that with the man I knew who was 40 years old before he moved out on his own, and I kid you not, he didn't know how to spread peanut butter on a slice of bread. Everything had always been done for him.