Excellent thoughts here! I never knew that! See. This is why I like Medium. We learn from each other.

So if I understand correctly, a compliment to a child meant something bad( most likely) and the mothers had to protect them by putting them down?

I remember never taking a compliment well, because although I was raised well by dad, I just never had the high self confidence like most. Some of my family members would get compliments from my aunt but not me. In fact I remember one year she spread nasty rumors about me , but at Thanksgiving she praised my cousin whom she claimed she did not like!

So yeah, the past did a number on us.

Thanks for reading!