I've never been great at getting compliments. I didn't get a lot growing up and they were more for my achievements than my looks. I can still get flustered when someone says I look good or nice or whatever. I tend to blame the compliment on what I'm wearing or say that what they are complimenting is something out of my control. I am trying to just be gracious and say thank you, but it's not my knee jerk reaction.
Because I have such trouble with compliments myself, I have been trying to teach Turbo to say thank you when he gets a compliment, or at least to have a better reaction than I do. We do try to compliment him on a job well done. He gets compliments when he does nice things for his brother, but thinking on it I don't tend to compliment him on how he looks very often. I might have to do that a bit more.
It might be experiment time. I need to start giving more compliments on how Nick and Turbo dress and generally look. Learning how to take a compliment is as important as learning how to give one. Being able to smile and say thank you is important.
And to leave you--You look marvelous! (I sincerely how at least some of you read that in Billy Crystal's Fernando voice) No, really you do!
Go see Gretchen for more complimentary Spins.
I'm glad I read this. This morning. Getting compliments is tough for me as well. I never know what to say and I always feel awkward. My pranets never complimented me it was always what I was doing wrong. I hope I don't do that with my children! I try to remember to be positive. Its great to get your input and perspective on this. Thank you
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting lesson. It's probably easier for us to compliment girls on how they look than boys, just because they put so much more effort into it. But I'm sure a boy enjoys being told he looks very handsome as much as a girl does. Maybe I'll experiment too, and go tell Jude and Jimmy how nice they look today!
ReplyDeleteYou are linked!
I used to be so bad about turning down a complement but my husband old always call me on it and so I have gotten a lot better at saying thank you and leaving it at that. The fact that you don't compliment your boys on their looks as much is totally normal and a gender thing. They did a study and if they told people the baby was a girl everyone would say how beautiful/ cute etc. but if they said the baby was a boy people would say how smart he was.
ReplyDeleteI've always had hard time accepting a compliment too. I usually deflect it, definitely not the polite thing to do. I do always give my girls compliments though & luckily they accept them really well LOL.
ReplyDeleteWhy, yes, Billy Crystal DID come to mind when reading this!
ReplyDeleteI'm not good at getting compliments either. :-)