Good job! (was Dweeb (1964))

[Steve Clason]

On 8/3/2004 9:06 PM Tom Kysilko wrote:

>
> Perhaps this had been going on for a while, and as new parents we became
> suddenly atuned to what people were saying to their children.  But it sure
> felt as if some child-rearing (excuse me, parenting) guru had proclaimed,
> "Thou shalt praise thy children with the words, 'Good job!'"  Does anyone
> know if there's any justification for this feeling?

I recall being informed by my wife that "Good girl!" (I have daughters,
now in college) praises the person while "Good job!" praises the
action--the idea is to separate the value of the person from the results
of the effort, thereby preventing failure from undermining self esteem.

No way she made that up. It must have been floating around in the mid '80s.

--
Steve Clason