Questions I wonder about

My quickie question of the day is.......while waiting for the hospital staff to come get us for Evan's surgery, I took note, not for the first time, that an older gentleman sitting in a wheel chair, was being addressed by his wife as if he were a child. The other women who interacted with him spoke in a similar manner to him. But.......later on he struck up a conversation with us and was obviously a very intelligent, talkative, lucid person. So....my question is - why do WOMEN talk to older men as if they are children???? I hear this sort of thing pretty frequently and then I, being an over thinker, put myself in the poor man's shoes and wonder if they notice or care that they are being condescended to? I pray I don't do that to the elder men in my life. Are men really children????? I would like to think they are not. Anna mused it is the result of feminism to treat men like they are 'slow' or incapable of understand. Hmmmm.....I see her point and perhaps she is right.