I’m writing generic methods and I am confused as to why the following code snippet throws a syntax error:

    public abstract class Parent
    {
        public virtual T MyMethod<T>() where T : Parent, new()
        {
            return this;
        }
    }

This method is constrained to returning types that are either Parent or types derived from Parent. Since this class is abstract, by returning this, the method is obviously going to return some class that inherits from Parent, yet there is a syntax warning saying “Cannot implicitly convert type ‘Parent’ to ‘T’. An explicit conversion exists (are you missing a cast?)”

Can someone explain why this is the case and how it can be fixed?