Nanna Wisdom

Overheard …

[Toddler] “I don’t want to go to the party”

[Grandmother] “Nan wants to go to the party. You can stay outside if you want.”

Overlooking the admirable old-school response, why do people talk to toddlers in the third person?

I suspect it’s a subconscious effort to depersonalise the responses and impress role-values into kids.

In the overhead example Nan is also saying “It’s not just what I want, this is what every (sane) Nan would say.”