Even the most doting parent would admit that they can find their children a trial at times.
And other people's offspring - don't get me started!
Now here's the thing.
We at The Insider love the insurance market like one of our own children. It's a compulsion - a conditioned reflex.
We'd do anything for it, but we must admit that often we do find it rather trying.
We wish it would do itself a few more favours.
Back when it was little this soft market used to be cute.
We used to marvel at its every gesture. There were many milestones - and each was celebrated like a royal feast. Smiles, rolls, crawls, steps, teeth, hair, sounds and words all came in rapid succession. Then there were birthdays, schools, assemblies, concerts, written words, music, prizes, plays, friendships.
There was sport and there was mathematics - and then maths homework. There was simple, hearty humour.
Then it was high school. There was drama, lots of drama, projects and planning. Discipline arrived with a bang - or at least the idea of discipline. Pressure started being exerted - and felt. Everything became more serious, more grown-up and less innocent. Satire arrived along with cynicism and an acute sense of injustice.
We looked up one day and saw that it was bigger than us and old and also thought itself wise.
It dawned on us that we were older - and wiser.
Discipline started to become more about negotiation. Shared interests were no longer shared. Bonds needed to be severed and remade.
Getting it enthusiastic about doing anything became almost impossible.
Then it started going out on its own, chaperoned at first, and then properly out and about in the world. It was scary.
We thought it wasn't ready.
And this is where we find ourselves. This soft market is a teenager and we don't know what to do with it - any more than it knows what to do with itself.
Yes, we know it had a pre-school wobble over the trials of KRW, but that wasn't a proper hard market as it didn't play out across the board and it came at a time when capital practically grew on trees.
It was the equivalent of a little scar on the leg sustained in a playground accident which has long since faded.
Or else it was a milk tooth lost in a tussle with a sibling - a distant memory as well as a dental irrelevance now that adult gnashers have sprung in their stead and the tooth fairy has gone the way of Santa Claus.
It doesn't even count as a formative experience.
No, this child has been spoilt rotten by good fortune. It has only known the good times. Yet they must end soon.
It is currently stretched out on an inflatable float in our swimming pool, enjoying the last of the summer, studiously avoiding anything approaching the pursuit of gainful employment.
Here's the latest horror.
It has recently learnt to drive. We still don't think it learned well enough.
Across the hall we hear the words every father dreads:
"Mum, can I borrow the car?"
Deep down we know the first car crash has to happen soon.
It's the last parental milestone - after that it's all down to the next generation.
We only hope that when it does seatbelts and airbags are deployed and function as intended. We'll never stop worrying but now we are too grey, too resigned and too tired to argue about it any longer.
It's time this teenage market came of age.
To view the second of our Baden-Baden newsletters for 2016 please click here.
Mark Geoghegan,
Managing Director