I’m glad you’re so thoughtful about how you should speak with children!
Sooner or later though, your child will have to learn that language is non-literal, and some questions like “do you want to wait to eat your messy candy?” are actually requests. For young kids though, it seems helpful to be clearer about when you’re offering real choices or not.
Reflecting upon my experience, I have decided to wholeheartedly agree with you on being literal with young children. I think establishing a strong connection between language and objective reality is useful even when sometimes language is used to make illusions and manipulate.
I’m glad you’re so thoughtful about how you should speak with children!
Sooner or later though, your child will have to learn that language is non-literal, and some questions like “do you want to wait to eat your messy candy?” are actually requests. For young kids though, it seems helpful to be clearer about when you’re offering real choices or not.
Reflecting upon my experience, I have decided to wholeheartedly agree with you on being literal with young children. I think establishing a strong connection between language and objective reality is useful even when sometimes language is used to make illusions and manipulate.