'Elderspeak' (from MSN Health)

Alzheimer's Patients React Poorly to 'Elderspeak' - MSN Health & Fitness - Alzheimer's Disease: "Nursing experts have known for years that family caregivers and professional nursing staff alike tend to lapse into infantilizing speech, what they call 'elderspeak,' when dealing with the elderly or infirm. This type of speech involves an overly caring but controlling tone of voice, shortened sentences, repetition, the use of inappropriately intimate terms of endearment ('sweetie,' 'dear'), and a tendency to treat the person in a childlike or highly dependent manner.
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I don't see myself as elderly or infirm, and I am infantilized on a regular basis. I was crossing Hyde street last week when someone told me, "Honey, Jesus loves you very much." I doubt he'd say this to someone of my age, race and social economic status who could see- so I wonder- is the implication that Jesus loves me more because I can't see? Pardon me while I let me head get bigger.

On Sunday evening this woman at the Seattle airport called me, sweetie, honey and dear in less than 5 minutes.
She also wanted to hold my boarding pass for me at the ticket counter- may be she thought I'd lose it?
Unfortunately, when I said, "Thanks for your conscientiousness darling, but I've got it covered," it was completely lost on her.

Most of the time how people treat me is a projection of their own fears about blindness.