Praise and Praiseworthy

My daughter was doing her homework today, online on the school website, and got one answer wrong. So she got 50% mark. She was a bit upset and told me about it.

“That’s okay,” I said, and highlighted that what is important is that she did the work. I remember a study that says children who are praised for getting a good mark instead of doing their best, will grow up to be less resistant to challenges. So I have been trying to parse my praise better, i.e. at the right thing. Plus she didn’t get everything right, so that would naturally not get a praise.

But then she did another section and completed it with 100% mark. I praised her for continuing and completing, within a short duration too, and was about to comment about the mark, but remembered what I thought before that. I did managed to keep quiet but I was very tempted to comment.

So even with all the realisation, it is sometimes hard to change our mindset, and by that, our actions. I hope by writing this down, it will help to reenforce.

Thank you for reading.