is it possible to overdo the praise with young dc?

[BocciBalls]

I praise my son a lot of the time, but was struck by seeing a friend with her dd earlier in the week. everytime her dd did something she would say "oh DARLING. That's WONDERFUL. Aren't you CLEVER." or "well DONE DARLING, that's FANTASTIC."

Should i be praising more or is my friend overdoing it? I feel that too much praise may either lead to dcs who just aren't interested in hearing it because they know it's false, or who need praise for every last thing they do.

[Gemzooks]

I think it should be appropriate to the spectrum of behaviour, and like telling off, loses its power if used for everything. so sounds to me like she might be overdoing it..

[Celery]

I also think it should be sincere, and sound sincere, and I think it would be impossible to be that sincere all of the time.

[slowreadingprogress]

totally agree with you celery

I think it would be perfectly possible for those remarks to actually feel very negative to the child - if they're totally insincere and said with the aim of not actually engaging with the child but basically "I'm on autopilot and I want you to stay away from me so I can chat to my friend"!!!!

Depends on sincerity almost totally - you could say things like that almost all day as long as you meant them IMO