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I hadn't really given the phenomenon much thought. You're essentially saying to the kid: you need to respect the "ideals" of what Dad represents and what a "Dad" in the abstract would expect of you in this situation. Sort of asserting your dominance through an appeal to a concept of an authority figure instead of you as an individual. Why is "I need to sleep now" potentially less effective?

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Not OP -- but parent of three.

The primary reason for using specifics ("dad", <name of child>, <name of sibling>, ...) is that pronouns are one of the last things a child will pick up. Think about how a child will always hear themselves referred to as "you" -- and end up assuming that "you" is like a name form them and start using "you" instead of "I"/"me".

In reality, you will be using both specifics and pronouns, and often repeat the same sentence with both versions to teach that they are identical.

Thanks, you explained it perfectly!

Very interesting perspective, thanks! I have no kids but I'm the oldest of 4 siblings (all boys...).

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