How mothers talk to children

Mom-babble. Four lively youngsters were jockying for space at the next table in the coffee shop, and of course, the smallest one lost. Here's what I overheard from Mom: "Tears do not mean happy. . ." "You need to clean up this mess. . ." "One of you made your brother upset, one of you needs to say you're sorry." Hello! Sometimes kids do this to get mom's attention, it works, and she talks them to death. Believe it or not, we took classes to learn to talky talky to children in the 1970s. I probably flunked, but lectured like my Mom did. If we weren't nice, she explained, and explained. Sometimes it made you wish for a spanking. Now everyone knows how to mom babble. Even dads.