And you are the all-sympathetic witness. In this way you teach your child appropriate responses to verbal abuse and help your child to honor his or her own feelings. It even makes children doubt themselves. Depending on your child's age and to whom she or he needs to respond, your child needs to learn appropriate responses to verbal abuse such as those covered in this book. Even an older child needs emotional support to respond to an adult who verbally abuses.
Children learn to abuse from adults and from each other.
You said it. You are responsible for what you say. Sometimes a child is verbally abused while visiting a parent after separation or divorce. I recently talked with a woman whose son would come back from visiting his father appearing very upset. Clearly, this is a serious problem.