"My sister and I “talk” by email almost every day, but we’ve only seen each other twice in the past 10 years. I doubt she would know that about me. But whether or not she did, she wouldn’t nag me about it. Similarly, I wouldn’t nag her about her use of alternative medicine, which I disagree with.
After all, our relationship with each other is entirely voluntary. Either of us could cut it off at any time. Therefore, we need to be careful about what we say to each other."
Everyone has different relationships with their siblings. I see my sister often, though we live 2,000 miles away. Generally, we text daily. We know a great deal about each other, including health issues, blood test results, very private things. If there is something she is concerned about for me, she nags me MERCILESSLY. She will not relent until I take care of the issue she is worried about. I have absolutely no resentment because I know it’s because she loves me, and she only has my best interests at heart. And she is very smart, and usually right. In return, I have helped her with some serious health issues that she has had, but we are both careful about the way we say things to each other. I wouldn’t tell her to exercise or how to lose weight, but if she came to see me for a couple of months, we would be exercising together, at whatever level she wanted. If she wouldn’t exercise, I would be very worried about depression.
"Sometimes, grown children cut their parents out of their lives because of excessive nagging. My brother-in-law did. He asked his father to stop giving him financial advice, and the father didn’t stop. So he cut off all contact with his father. The father died about 10 years later, without ever seeing or talking with his son again.
Consider: If you nag the kid on the couch to get off the couch, will that kid ever want to see you again once she has a couch of her own"
I don’t go beyond the point where my kids get aggravated. If they ask me to stop talking about something, I will. But I didn’t raise kids that were so overly sensitive that a couple reminders that they needed to get off the couch would turn them away forever. I think they love me a lot more than that, and they remind me of things that they feel are important without any concern that I would get offended or not want to see them. Family is forever, we love each other, we know that anything said is purely out of concern. Our bonds are not fragile.