Would you say that your conversations and discussions are at eye level?
I just ask because i could imagine that it is very demanding for him not to give life advises all the time or take his experiences and project them to your situations. I guess many situations that you have to cope with - he already has a similar story , but still you want to be heard and not directly be given an advice? Also, you might still have the need to explore things yourself and he clearly already experienced a lot and might explain it to you instead of letting you explore by yourself?
I write that without having a bad view on him I just think of my parents being only 20/25 years older than me and not always being able to have that distant view... So I wonder how you deal with that generation gap in your relationship.
Thanks :) that makes sense to me now. :)