Compliment days...

Raising 4 young boys it is never far from my mind the fact that one day I will have 4 teenage boys.  While I have no idea at this point what that will be like, I am aware that there are some really important values I would like to aim for starting while they are little.

One of them is a family culture of encouragement.  I know it is inevitable that my boys will compete with each other in certain areas, however I really want them to be each other greatest supporters as well.

So on that note, I recently read about a great idea on the Seven Cherubs blog (here) about having Compliment Days. 

Basically I've assigned each of us a day of the week in which we will all be showered with compliments. 

Our list looks like this:

Monday - Jayden

Tuesday - Ethan

Wednesday - Dylan

Thursday - Louis

Friday - Mum

Saturday - Dad

Sunday - Everyone

So, having 6 people in our family it works out perfectly and on Sundays we can just give everyone compliments galore. 

Today was our first day of implementation and I was so surprised how they all picked it up straight away.  We gave a heap of compliments to Jayden on the way into Kinder and I was surprised with him being  2 1/2 how much he understood and appreciated.  He was sitting there nodding away, agreeing with all of the nice statements being thrown his way, it was really gorgeous.

At dinner, Louis decided to compliment him unprompted on his cute face and smile, which then snowballed around the table with everyone adding lots of genuine appreciations of his character, behaviour and great little personality. 

I can only imagine as we go through the week how each of the boys will react and respond to being showered with praise for all of the greatness about them. 

My dream is that they carry this with them as they grow older and their self esteem is tested in many ways.  That they can also pay it forward and understand how much value there is in helping others appreciate and see the value in themselves rather than need to tear them down.