I know several caregivers who have had experience with the elder that they are caring for talk about children. Why is that?

My mother-in-law wouldn't let me sit next to her on the couch because I might sit on "the children." I chalked that up to the fact that she had once been a teacher. But she was also a mother. My own take is that they are still a mother or teacher at heart, and maybe think they are taking care of kids. That's what they did. It's a way of living in the past, which to them is the present. Anyway, as you say, it's common!
Take care,
Carol