Rewatching 1216 gave me a different perspective about the parent/children dynamic between Dean and Sam
Dean always has extra patience with kids, whether is Ben in the previous seasons, Claire in this season, or random kids across all those seasons.
I feel that Dean doesn't care carefully for Sam every second, or speaks with him with extra tenderness any more in the later seasons can be seen as him slowly sees Sam as an adult, who can shoulder responsibilities with him together, and let him go with confidence. Only when Sam is in danger or is about to die does he feel that Sam is helpless and incapable of dealing with the situation again, and then he will switch to the parenting mode for Sammy, taking care of him instantly.
In the previous seasons, even though Sam repeatedly told him that he was OK, Dean still said and truly felt that “NO, you are my kid and I have to help you deal with this (these/everything)”, which made Sam felt frustrated so many time that he hid loads of things from Dean.
As time goes by, Dean knows more and more that Sam can do things right by himself, and he gradually learns to trust his brother, so he lets him go out to do various things. And the secrets become less and less (which also is because they learned secrets won't do any good) between them.
But at the same time, because of this recognition, Dean is less and less regarding Sam physically and psychologically as the kid who needs to be taken care of, and thus treats him more like an ordinary adult in daily communication, and as an adult to negotiate with.
Which is a bit sad cause it's like a dilemma that Sam either is a kid for Dean to take care of, or a fully adult standing by his brother's side. There's no middle ground unless Sam is in danger. The normal physical comfort and all the things it brings alone reduced sharply (agian, unless they are checking and confirming each other is fine). Although it is not completely true cuz they still flirting and touching each other, it's also TRUE.
I think it's reasonable Sam misses Dean sometimes even if he's beside him or in the same space in the bunker with him. And it's difficult for Dean too cause he misses a lot of things about his baby brother, but he might still can't figure out how to care without infantilizing Sam, and he's still bothered by what Sam said more than once, about how he's not a child anymore.
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Who here loves snakes? I just had a memory of my 8th grade science teacher having a small ball python named mr.noodles. He was so cute!!
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