When I was writing about people trying to take away our awesome, it reminded me of something that happened years ago when Andrew was a toddler.
The instructor of a parenting class I was attending told us to be careful not to compliment our children too much because they could get overly dependent on praise and feel pressured to keep doing a good job just to keep us happy. This would, of course, screw them up for life. Great.
So for a while I dutifully twisted myself into knots trying to keep from overtly praising Andrew. Did you enjoy building that train track? Boy, you sure used a lot of tracks today. How did that make you feel?
One day he built something really creative out of blocks and, before I could stop myself, I blurted out, “That’s so cool!” Well. After that, I went back to my old ways. And, I mean, if you can’t count on your own mother to tell you how fabulously wonderful you are, then who can you count on?
By the way, I’ve heard through the grapevine that our instructor has become a mother herself. And I’ll bet you anything she’s slipped up and said, “Just look at that amazing pudding art! You’re a genius!”
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