Okay.

I am being super, ultra cautious about how I'm wording this, but am going out on a limb here.

As someone who literally helped to care for her much younger brother (I had solo custody of him one night per week during his teens, I fed him, supervised homework, did his laundry, got him ready for school, made his lunches, all that jazz) I am just slightly familiar with what it's like to step in to be a guardian for a younger relative.

I'm reading Reborn. I'm reading basically all of Dick and Damian's appearances. I'm...not seeing a parent-child relationship here. I see mentoring and supervision, yes. I appreciated the "I was trying to have a night off" moment in Streets of Gotham. But a lot of this is just big brothering or vigilante mentor stuff.

I fully, 100% believe Dick and Damian bonded during their period together. I also believe they had a little family unit going on between Alfred, Dick and Damian. I respect people reading whatever interpretation they want to read of this material.

But from what I see on the paper? I think calling it parental is a stretch. Damian's in kincare, folks. On paper? Damian's physical needs are being provided by Alfred, his vigilante mentoring is being provided by Dick, as far as I can tell he's not even in education, and we get precious few insights into what's happening during daylight hours. (Especially, ESPECIALLY as I really have not seen Damian receive, well, boundaries outside of the field. Or consequences for his actions. Or...really, any active parenting)

Dick's looking after Damian, sure. But he's not Damian's parent.

And that's perfectly ok, not everything has to be reduced to a simple traditional nuclear family ideal.