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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/23995
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Pauses in speech often coincide with grammatically correct comma placement, but do not _necessarily_ do so. Using speech pauses as a rule for comma placement is a fallacy.

To quote [Grammar Girl](http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/where-do-i-use-commas): _"The 'put a comma everywhere you’d pause' idea is an unfortunately common myth."_

To address your first specific example, I believe that the word "okay" is actually the start of a new sentence, and I believe that the correct structure would be either:

_“You look after each other. Okay, children?"_  
or:  
_“You look after each other; okay, children?"_

(semicolons may link two sentences together to show that are related)

For your second example,  
"I'll have a sparkling water, please, sir." is correct.  
The word "please" is non-restrictive, superfluous. The sentence works perfectly without it:  
"I'll have a sparkling water, sir."  
This means that the commas surrounding the "please" are necessary.

Original score: 0