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Original poster

Compliments that have stayed with you

151 replies

HereComesTheSunBriefly · 06/05/2023 15:25

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?

OP posts:
starfishmummy · 06/05/2023 20:29

One of the junior doctors treating baby ds complimented me on my new haircut. After weeks of staying with him in hospital, getting vhrtually no sleep on a camp bed in a busy ward and generally looking a wreck I had taken myself off for a long overdue trim at one of those walk in hairdressers. (I hit lucky as the stylist was excellent). I already felt much better but to be complimented by a rather dishy doctor made my day! With a bedside manner like that I hope he went on to have a great career!

(He also noticed one weekend when I'd gone out on a clothes shopping spree to buy some new clothes and was no longer wearing my maternity stuff which dh was taking home to wash and bringing back like crumpled dish rags).

MrsCharlieD · 06/05/2023 20:29

A colleague of mine told me my face is like a perfect portrait. It floored me honestly. On those days I'm feeling like crap I think about what he said and it perks me up.

Pallisers · 06/05/2023 20:29

My then 20 year old son told me I was the most likeable person he knew and all his friends loved me.

EatTheDamnCake · 06/05/2023 20:30

"you look just like Alison Goldfrapp" (someone said this to me at a rave. I loved it.

ConstanceReid · 06/05/2023 20:32

A guest at a hotel we were staying at, said to another guest who then told me, that I had the most beautiful body he’d ever seen. It was in French Polynesia, so he saw a LOT of it 😂

I know it’s shallow, but I’ve always remembered it.

BeyondMyWits · 06/05/2023 20:35

I work part time. Over the last month I've had 3 separate customers tell me they only come in on Tuesday because I'm there.

Also, in 1998 (it had that much of an impression on me) a lady in Disney world Florida came over and told me that I looked A-MAY-ZING in the dress I was wearing... just out of nowhere.

Notellinganyone · 06/05/2023 20:38

When I was 21; I was sitting in Browns in Cambridge. I was wearing a black Bardot style dress and a man came up to me and said “ I just wanted to tell you that you are very beautiful.” He then just left.

BugsyDrakeTableScape · 06/05/2023 20:41

When I went for one of many sweeps with DD3 the midwife told me I had a beautiful cervix.

shivawn · 06/05/2023 20:45

I can be a bit uncomfortable with compliments, especially ones on my appearance. It's the small little throw away comments that stay with me... colleagues who have said that they love being rostered on my shift because I'm so relaxed and easy to work with.

neilyoungismyhero · 06/05/2023 20:49

My first husband had an affair and left me for a chidless girl over 10 years younger. My confidence was shot until a woman in a pub one night said to me 'you're very good looking my dear'. Didn't quite know what to say back but it gave me a boost.

GiveMyHeadPeaceffs · 06/05/2023 20:49

Coming up the escalator from the Glasgow underground and chatting to my friend, the bloke in front of us turned around and told me I'd a beautiful voice and accent (Northern Irish Grin).

My friend looking at me recently and telling me I was an inspiration to her. I was really touched.

Random789 · 06/05/2023 20:51

What an absolutely lovely thread. So many wonderful compliments - and evidently so many wonderful people inspiring them.

I can only offer the time when someone told me I was 'very real'. I would have thought that was a completely baseline requirement of a human being, nothing very estimable. But I was at a mindfulness course in a Buddhist monastery and we had been talking about kindness and gratitude so I was in the mood to make the very best of it.

Carrydaily25 · 06/05/2023 20:52

In a busy play area a lady with a toddler approached us to say that our 4 year old son was so kind and patient and just so lovely with her daughter! He’s grown and married now but I still recall how proud I felt 🥰

limitedperiodonly · 06/05/2023 20:52

My dad had Alzheimer's and my mum did the lion's share of the caring, but sometimes we would mind him while she did other things - mainly the shopping or going to the doctor or dentist, nothing lavish. Sometimes she would have her hair done though!

One day I was sitting in the kitchen while he was doing the washing up. It was always his job to do the washing up - he volunteered because it was his turn after my mum did all the cooking but also because he would craftily sneak leftovers.

He was always a good washer upper but after his illness set in, the plates might need doing again. But he didn't break anything and having his hands in warm water and staring out of the window to his beloved garden - he used to be a good gardener until my mum took over - soothed him.

I can't remember what we were talking about. It was nothing, just: "Really Dad? That's interesting."

Then he turned round with soapy hands and said: "I like it when you come round."

He didn't know I was his daughter but somehow he remembered me as the girl who came round who he liked, or maybe he thought I was someone else I'll never know, but I'll take that as a compliment.

ICouldHaveCheckedFirst · 06/05/2023 20:53

At work someone told me "you are the custodian of your own high standards".

injuredfather · 06/05/2023 20:54

When DH and I first got together he told me 'it is an honour and a privilege to be with you'. Makes me feel all happy even now

Yongala35 · 06/05/2023 20:55

I am a lurker.
I have had an awful time following the death of a person I loved and cared for the previous seven years. I was heartbroken and bereft. Grief sent me to the lowest point in my life-suicidal ideation to the extent that I bought medication off the internet. I crawled out of my pit of despair with the help of my friends and some members of my family. I saw a psychiatrist who said "Yongala, I know you are a good person."

ThatFriyayFeeling · 06/05/2023 20:56

I had a meeting with potential new clients and at the end, one of the women told me I had lovely teeth 😬 a few days later, standing in the queue in a coffee shop, the lady behind me tapped me on the shoulder and told me I had beautiful hair.

I felt a million bucks that week!!

louderthan · 06/05/2023 20:57

'You're the backbone of this team'
'Everyone is in a better mood when you're around'
'Ooh you do cheer me up!'

RhinestoneCowgirl · 06/05/2023 20:59

A shallow one about appearance, but I treasure it. A female work colleague told me I looked like a model, I was so tall and slim. I was wearing a favourite pair of long boots and thought I looked good but it was nice to have someone else day so.

Another time on a train with DS when he was a toddler. It was a fairly long journey and I'd been keeping him occupied with snacks, small toys and chat. As we got off a man told me "he has been delightful". Made my day.

Xtraincome · 06/05/2023 21:01

"You are the absolute heart of our family" DH told me that when I was down about myself.

MerylSqueak · 06/05/2023 21:02

I have one from my teen years and one from now.

It got back to me through someone else that my hairdresser (who knew the family well - small village) had said about me, 'The best thing about Meryl is she doesn't know she's wonderful.' I was 17, deeply insecure and wrestling with growing up amongst a violent and alcoholic family. It meant the world to me that someone had some faith in me.

Recently, I was filling in some rubbish survey for work and one of the questions was which of four fairly complimentary words I most identified with myself. I didn't really know so I asked teen DD and she said, ' Well all of them really but probably 'determined' most of all because you work really hard for the children you work for and you never give up.' I was chuffed to bits.

Arxx · 06/05/2023 21:03

It’s funny, I think more compliments in my head about people than I will often say. Sometimes you don’t say it because it just passes you by or sometimes you assume they know but such a small comment really can make someone’s day. I was at a (sitting) concert last night and I’m pregnant and feeling very frumpy. I wore a new dress out my wardrobe and as I passed a girl I heard her say to her friend that she liked my dress. As we were leaving there were two creepy guys who somehow seem to have missed the fact I have a massive bump 🤔 but one said to the other that I was ‘fit’. Probably years ago I would have been repulsed by that but the combination of his creepy comment and the lady saying my dress was nice really did perk me up a bit and make me think it’s just me thinking how fat and ugly I look! 😅

Theresa79 · 06/05/2023 21:12

When my Dad told me I was the nicest of his daughters

TheDogsMother · 06/05/2023 21:12

DH compliments me a lot which is lovely but I had a surprising week last week, being nearly 60. From one person my skin was glowing and from another I had nailed my outfit and had amazing hair. This never happens so I was blown away. Vain I know but I think everyone appreciates a compliment.