Could over complimenting your child lead to a lack of humility?

We are all quite aware of how too much of anything can be bad even if it was reported to be good for you.  Could the same be said about complimenting your children?  As a parent and remembering how it was for me growing up, it made me feel like riding on a cloud when any one of my parents would acknowledge me and once in a while tell me how well I am doing instead of constantly reminding me of my faults.  I make it a point of letting my children know that not all of their decisions are bad ones and applaud them when they do the right thing.  I found myself doing it more with the two youngest ones than I had with the older ones.  I began to wonder if I was doing more harm than good by doing this so often.

What made me aware of this possibility was the constant acclamation of my five year old about winning at everything.  She has gotten to the point that she must win at every cost and before this was seriously addressed by her mother and me, it seemed to stem from wishing to hear more compliments.  Together we band to educate our daughter that winning is not everything and contrary to popular belief it is not the only thing.  We are beginning to suspect that we may be over-complimenting her which would ultimately defeat our purpose.  We will never stop complimenting our children when they do the right thing but we will begin to look for a compromise in the amount.

As parents, we all know that it is important to give our children what they need in order to become successful but we also have to look out for doing it too much.    Like all other things, there is a limit and a line between doing just enough and doing too much.  This line is sometimes blurred and often ignored because there are no sincere boundaries between them.  What it takes is a coming-of-age for parents to understand that too much of anything can be bad.

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