Yep, the problem is parents talking this way all the time. We talked, and still do, to our kids much as we talk to adults.

Got my kids back for the summer and they made friends with the neighborhood brats. I’d talk to the other kids like I did mine and they often looked a little stunned, like they didn’t quite understand me.

In a related note, I don’t like kids too much, but they have always loved me. Couldn’t understand it for the longest time but my first wife set me straight. “It’s because you approach them as equals and don’t talk down to them. They feel respected.”

Having said all that, I do have my mother’s unfortunate tendency to treat kids as small adults. That obviously doesn’t work.