To a four-year-old, you’re the coolest person alive. Let that make you a little more careful and a lot more kind.

Small children hand out authority you did not earn and cannot refuse. A four year old sees you as close enough to adult to be interesting and close enough to child to be copied, so your throwaway lines get repeated and your attitudes absorbed whole. It is power you did not ask for and have anyway.

So watch what you say about your own body, your own food, and people who are not in the room. Then use it the good way: tell them what they are good at, by name, and let them finish their sentences.