The biggest problem talking to kids like adults is that to make the exchange even you have to talk like a kid. Not like a doting aunt going How’s my widdle man?, but like a kid using kid phrases and talking about things kids care about. A discussion of the mortgage meltdown has to hinge on how it affects the price of chewing gum.
I never talk to kids in that singsong, cutesy annoying way that some people do. I think kids hate it and I hate the way it sounds.
Instead of saying “Awwwww! What a cute widdle balloon you have!” I would say, “Nice balloon. Who gave it to you?” or something similar.
No quibble with your large point, fetus, but I wanted to mention the pidgin spoken today doesn’t sound like that. I don’t know if it’s a transcription thing or if the pidgin has evolved (it’s only been a generation or two), but that read to me more like a Cajun person trying to speak Hawaiian pidgin.
Sorry I gave the impression that it was supposed to. Those are very (19th century) antiquated examples.
ETA: And what’s spoken now is technically a creole, not a pidgin, IIUC, and I may very well ont.