According to a study conducted by the Universite de Montreal (with some help from a researcher from Concordia University), children can actually understand and even use irony.
From Science Daily:
"Overall, hyperbole and sarcasm were most often used during positive interactions with children, while euphemisms and rhetorical questions were mostly used in situations of conflict. Also, mothers and fathers did not use irony in the same way. Mothers were more inclined to use rhetorical questions and fathers preferred sarcasm.
"Children's understanding of complex communication is more sophisticated than we believed in the past," says Alexander. "If parents are conscious that by age four a child can take a remark literally, especially in situations of conflict, using appropriate language can help defuse a potentially explosive situation."
For the record, my father spoke (growing up) in riddles and my mother has a biting sarcastic edge.
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