Empty praise

Parents today are told we are supposed to support our children with praise. This builds their tiny egos (anyone who has a five-year-old knows their egos are anything but small!).

Anyway, this morning, Alex and Andy were working on their house. Their house is a huge refrigerator box Tracy brought home for them to decorate. I didn't know what they were working on, but I enjoyed listening to their discussions.

A problem arose when they wanted to draw something in white on the inside of the box.

"Why don't we use chalk?" Andy suggested ... very proud of his idea.

"We can't do that. It'll smear all over." Alex slammed the idea fast.

Seeing an opportunity to maintain his "fragile" ego, I said, "Well, Andy, he's probably right that it would smear, but that was a really good idea."

Andy basically ignored me and he thought for a little longer... "I know, we can cut out some white paper and draw on that!"

Alex loved the idea and told him what a good plan it was.

Andy was thrilled.

He's only 5 but he understands clearly sees empty praise when he hears it. And I guess he knows a 7-year-old would never give it!