I am an avid watcher of Loose Women (ITV lunchtime chat show) and was very interested in one of their debates this week, which was on the subject of praising our children.
The general consensus of opinion seemed to be that we cannot praise our offspring too much, providing that the praise is genuine.
All of the panel felt that if a child was seen to be doing his/her best, then they must be praised for their effort, even if the results were not always as great as they would like.
Personally, I think it is difficult to generalise and I believe that the way we deal with our offspring should be mainly down to the personality of the individual child.
For example, my daughter does not deal with criticism well.
I noted from a really early age that unless she received regular encouragement and huge amounts of praise, she often lost interest in a task.
If I had occasion to tell her off for the untidy state of her bedroom say, she would sulk and display a reluctance to improve it.
However, if I stepped into her room with an exclamation of delight, she would be thrilled by the praise and she would endeavour to keep up the good work.
My son, brought up in entirely the same way, was totally different.
He is naturally competitive and all I ever had to do was pass positive comment about his sister and he would try desperately to do as well or better in whatever she had excelled in.
If I made a general criticism about the state of his bedroom, he would shrug it off as unimportant and I would rarely see an improvement.
Some people might say it is wrong to make comparisons in families and whilst I would agree if you are comparing achievements brought about by intelligence, I don't think a little bit of healthy competition does any of them any harm! I totally agree that all children need a certain amount of praise for their achievements and there is no better feeling in the world than when your children make you want to burst with pride.
Equally, feeling their parent's pride in them, can only make a child feel happy and confident.
However, I cannot abide parents who continually brag about their kids and who see them through rose tinted glasses.
Granted, many of these mothers and fathers really do believe their ducks are swans but unfortunately, most of these children grow up thinking they are a cut above the rest of us.
Nobody likes a bigheaded, over confident person and parents who over -inflate the egos of their children are not doing them any favours in the long term.
The worst culprits are the parents who continually tell their offspring how beautiful they are and who over-emphasise the importance of looks over kindness.
I have seen friends of my daughter who are far too preoccupied with the way they look, whilst being disparaging about the merits of their plainer friends, who are for the most part more genuine and well rounded characters.
Most of our children have a natural flair for something, be it in sport, academia or practicality and obviously wherever their skills lie, they should be nurtured and encouraged.
Parents need to accept that whilst they think their sons and daughters are the best there can be, there will always be someone who is better and surely, for the sake of healthy development, this is not such a bad lesson to pass on to their children.