Hi Craig,

I'm new here and am a woman over 35 years of age. At first, I took a bit of offense over your age/gender related remark, but decided there may be something to it.

I'd say that it has to do with prior "training" and expectations that we women learned over our lifetimes. Up until not too many years ago, the division of household chores was fairly cut and dried. Taking care of household equipment was often the man's job.

Your mistake with your older female family members may have been in offering to change the batteries for them. You really should have gotten their attention and explained they they would be needing to change the batteries from time to time, and they would need to do it ALL BY THEMSELVES!

I know this sounds a bit funny, but I'm very serious. You'd be doing them a favor by giving them both the flashlight AND the set of expectations that go with it. We females are never too old to be retrained. <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />