When it comes to the weight that an adults words carry with children, every situation is different. Not everybody has to watch themselves, but that comes with a certain amount of self accountability in the relationship. Some parents or elders want to frank and matter of fact about the disappointments of life, but then dislike that when they’re often the prime example of those disappointments that it quickly makes the younger person less likely to respect their seniority. A big problem adults have is that, consciously or not, they tend to have a different set of standards for holding themselves accountable with kids as opposed to adults. They fail to realize that they’re not treating those kids in a way that will help them be functioning adults one day, either because they’ll lack a sense of responsibility, or they won’t trust others will have it either. Sadly, often times it could be both. At the end of the day, kids don’t need their every whim catered to, but some adults take that too far and don’t allow their words or actions to be questioned because they’ve grown comfortable with a certain order of things that they can continue to enforce unless they themselves choose to self reflect.