Quote:
Originally Posted by vital
This is the way a certain unnamed parent of mine used to talk to me for most of my childhood. I was constantly stuck saying:
ME: Don't do that!
PARENT: Don't do what?
ME: That thing you're doing!!
PARENT: ?
I could never ever get it to stop. 
I suspect this happens ALOT between people. It really needs a good name. Maybe just "condescending" or "controlling" is right, but I think that usually the person doing it will deny that and may even be unaware that they are doing "it" whatever "it" is.
- vital |
Wait... what you are describing is the exact polar opposite of the examples in your OP. You are describing a kid who is making an assumption (the assumption is that the word "THAT" describes what the parent is currently doing, which is problematic for many reasons - e.g. a parent maybe preparing dinner and talking on the phone at the same time) and then getting upset that the parent does not read the assumption right. The parent here does not attempt to read the child's mind. In OP, the responder was overly aggressive in trying to read the conversation partner's mind.