Especially the current generation of parents who believe that this is very important for the kid's development. The previous generation were kinda stingy when it came to giving their kids credit where due. Atleast my parents were. Maybe the thought process was that too much of praise can make the kid believe that he is very good and inhibit further achievement. I would like to take the middle line - give appreciation / encouragement where due, but not go overboard and thereby stifle further growth.
My wife is no exception when it comes to Aman and to a certain extent I can see why. Aman started talking early at just about a little more than 1 year, talks legibly for his age, picks up words/rhymes/meanings/situations pretty fast, etc. Maybe there are many kids out there that do all this & more, but since her comparo is limited to the other kids in the family / school / neighborhood, she feels he is up there.
As far as I am concerned, I was more impressed by the fact that he could correctly identify various cars on the street even when he was just 1.5 years old. :-) He could correctly identify an M800, Alto, Ambassador, Santro, Swift, Jeep etc. Ofcourse, the moment it came to sedans, all cars were the "Baleno" according to him.
But last weekend, he truly impressed me with a couple of creations he made on his own using building-blocks. On Saturday morning, I was going through the newspaper, with Aman playing nearby, when he nudges me to have a look at his "home" as he called it. What impressed me was
the amazing symmetry in the creation.
And then again on Sunday night we are about to hit the bed, when he shows another of his creations - a little more complicated than the previous one, but again perfectly symmetrical in design.
Called out to my wife (who was in the kitchen) and both of us were truly impressed. Maybe it's possible that many kids his age will do this without much ado, but to us it looked marvellous - proving the crow-adage so true. :-)
