Compliments that have stayed with you

[HereComesTheSunBriefly]

Inspired by the insults that have stayed with you thread -

Because, even though I remember insults too, I've been practising collecting compliments to try and let the insults go!

What compliment made a massive difference to you and kept you going?

And end of thread as you have won haha well done!

obv that was directed to Titanium vagina

My son was talking to his friend about the fact that he (my son) and I were going out for lunch to the pub.

Friend said 'how can you just sit and talk to your mum for an hour?'

My son said 'how can YOU not?'

Son was about seventeen at the time, and I was quietly chuffed that I was the sort of person he could sit and talk to.

Somebody said to me recently “you’re such a strong person”. I so needed to hear that at a time when I felt like I was totally falling apart, processing a lot of trauma and failing at everything. It gave me a shred of hope and spurred me on not to give up.

A woman telling me the world would be a better place if more mothers were like me.

that I was the most amazing woman he had ever met. This was at a time when I was an all time low. It was so genuine and not a play so it made it more valuable.

that I am the best manager they have ever had. This person was very tricky to manage!

I work as a scientist and the boss of the consultancy I first worked at (straight out of uni) told my good friend/colleague that I was very bright and one to watch.

I have always been full of self doubt and at a girls private school I was told by a female teacher that I’d never amount to anything and should take typing and not science at gcse 🤷‍♀️

My lovely community midwife said to me "You are a good mother". She was visiting me a week after my premature, small for dates son came home, to weigh him and check him. He'd gained a pound (!) - probably because I was feeding him about every 5 minutes as I was terrified he'd die.

I realised how much I needed to hear that after she'd said it. I've never forgotten it.

An ex manager of mine said 'please, please don't ever leave, I don't know how we managed before you came here'. That made me feel really good.

I was told, by a very attractive much younger man who must need his eyes testing that I'm beautiful, have great legs and I'm ageing like a fine wine. He wasn't being in the least bit creepy, just genuinely lovely, and unbeknownst to him he made 50 something me feel utterly fabulous <shallow>

Male colleague, around 40 years older than me, not long after I'd started my dream job.
"If I was a woman I'd want to be you. Or Doris Day."
No clue why. But he meant it as the highest of compliments and I still ponder the similarities between me and Doris decades on.

A colleague once told me that I’m very strong, not physically but emotionally and mentally.

That was my best compliment as well!
It wasn't even said directly to me, it was said by one person who knew me well, to another person who didn't know me well. Conversation retold to me by a third person who was there. 😊

A woman who saw my and my son on the commute to work and nursery every day tapped me on the shoulder as she was getting off the bus and said “Can I just say, I think you’re a great mom”
it made me glow and still does now nearly 2 years later.

Someone told me fairly recently that I have "presence". It was all I could do not to buff my lapel with my knuckles like we used to do in the 80s 😁

My mother was minding my sons ( aged 6 & 8) while I was at work, at my home. When I arrived home, they both ran to greet me, and my 6 year old said "mum, its rubbish here without you!". They had all their toys/games etc. but clearly missed me! It was 20 years ago, but it still gives me a warm glow when I think of it.

I had been working for quite a while with a year 6 boy, who had been at risk of exclusion ( as it was then). He was moving to secondary school, so it was our last session. I was wishing him well for the next phase of his education and he looked at me and said ‘Miss, I’ll never forget you’

I’ve never forgotten that.

I’m a Year 6 teacher and we had a very shy, very withdrawn boy came to us from another school at the end of Year 5. When he left Year 6 the change in him was amazing and I have the most previous letter from his Mum thanking me for the huge difference I’d made to his (and their) life and that I was someone he (and they) would remember for the rest of their lives. It made me cry.

My husband saying ‘you’ve made my life so happy’.

When I was much younger I was on a work course and I saw one of the lecturers whilst I was coming back from lunch.

I was told I had a lovely smile, by the older female course leader.

I’ve been told to smile, or that I’ve a nice smile by men which of course doesn’t count.

When I was 20 years old I was away from home at uni. My parents asked me to visit one of their friends who taught at the same uni. The lady was her 50s she kindly invited me to stay at her house for one night ( she taught at a different campus, which is far from mine). She lived with her mum who was 80 plus at the time. The old lady held my hand and told me "you are very pretty" in her dialect which I hardly understood. I knew I wasnt really pretty but I thought it was the age, being 20 years old, young and fresh, that must be what she meant, maybe I reminded her of her youngger days. I will always remember that moment and remember how nice it was be to young and full of hope.

That is absolutely brilliant

When I was younger I used to sing and go to church, although I do neither now.

Once after I'd sung a member of the congregation said to me "When you sing, I know God is here."

That must have been 30 years ago and I still remember it.

this really is a beautiful thread - thank you

Someone at work said I had a “feminist and maternal presence” on my anonymous appraisal feedback form. Loved it.