PRAISE (A Five-Minute Friday Post)

I'm playing catch-up here.  This is the Five Minute Friday prompt from a week ago.

What do you think of praise?  It's generally a good thing.  Until it's not.

Growing up, I was praised for the things I accomplished - learning to ride a bike, earning good grades, being chosen to act in plays, being accepted into college, making it down the ski slope without killing myself.

Likewise, if I messed up, I heard about it.  A lot.  I got spanked (gasp!).  I got grounded.  Not often, though, because I was a pretty boring kid who behaved most of the time.

My poor kids got raised the same way.  You do something good, you get praised.  You mess up, you get something else!  They grew up understanding that they weren't the best ever at everything, but that they could be excellent at some things.

They grew up in the middle of the artificial self-esteem craziness.  I do believe kids need praise for trying their best because it takes guts to try something even if it goes badly, but so many kids got the message that everything they did was excellent, even when it wasn't, then were upset when they got into the workforce and found out their employers didn't think they were the greatest things to grace the planet.

The result - a lot of confused, unhappy young adults.

Praise is great, when appropriate.  But unearned, it's meaningless.

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This post is part of the Five-Minute Friday link-up.  Today's writing prompt was "PRAISE."  For more information on Five-Minute Friday, click here.