What is the best compliment you have ever received?

[Amiable]

I've seen a couple of threads recently about horrible things you've overheard someone say about you, or back-handed compliments, so thought it was time for a more positive thread!

What is the best compliment / nicest thing anyone has ever said about you or to you?

One of my favourite ever colleagues said to me how impressed he was that I could talk to anyone, however senior/important, and always seemed comfortable with public speaking. At the time I really didn't feel that way, but it gave me the confidence boost I needed and now I do feel it!

Few work ones

Someone said after a few weeks of a temp assignment 'Now there's a chick who knows her shit.'

I went into a company where the payables was a disaster. Set to and started sorting it out and manager said I was the person who meant she didn't have to lie awake worrying about it any more (have got that comment on my CV)

Colleague in the pub to DH - 'you realise you're married to the cleverest woman in this company, don't you?'

'You're doing a wonderful job'

Said to me by an elderly lady in a hospital waiting room while trying to manage a three year old freaking out because he was slowly going blind (because of eye drops) and one year old who was toddling all over the place.

DH told me that I am absolutely nothing like my DM. You won’t believe what a compliment that is.

I used to stop off in a Costa every morning before work a good few years ago now to get a takeaway coffee

Was on a major low at the time, felt really awful about myself and life in general

One morning the lady serving me just looked at me and said 'you always look so pretty'

No one has ever referred to me as pretty in my life and it honestly just lifted me up so much in that moment.

May come across as a bit superficial but it really made my day

Once told by a gp’s pharmacist ‘you’re always such a calm mum’.

I had 3 children. Two of them were babies and was always holding them both.

I didn’t feel calm, I felt crap, lonely, tired and unattractive. But that one comment empowered me. I still remember it now, 15 years later

Many years ago, I was kneeling on the floor hunched over looking at something and the bloke whose flat I was in took his camera out (he was a photographer) to snap away.

I thought I was just normal, a bit gawky, just trying to get through life, you know? I was never one for makeup or fancy hair etc. He told me I was one of the most feminine women he knew. More than 30 years later, I remind myself of that from time to time.

I got told I had beautiful skin once by a client. It was good make-up and that's what I told her but she said I was 'glowing' and lucky to have such good skin. It was 20 yrs ago though and it's maybe not quite the same these days 😂

The main one that springs straight to mind is that I was in a crowded bar one night last year and a woman walked in with her friend and happened to catch my eye. She walked right up to me and said “You. The way you look. The way you’re dressed. Just you.”

I didn’t know what to say. I so rarely get compliments.

That's a really odd compliment though, isn't it?

I mean an odd way of complimenting someone.

It was definitely admiring but I was just shocked as I still had my coat on!

I was once stopped by a woman in a shopping mall. She told me she'd seen me around with my very young DC and was so impressed by my mothering. That they alwaya looked clean and well cared for and she'd seen me feed them healthy treats and speak nicely to them always. I had PND at the time and felt I was doing an awful job. The fact she'd noticed me being a good mum on a number of occasions meant the world to me. Still does.

I used to look after a chap who didn’t like me at all when we first met but eventually warmed to me.

When he was dying, he held my hand and told me that I was a special human and he’d never been so glad to have misjudged someone, and that he and his family now thought of me as one of their own. Still gives me a lump in my throat to think of him.

My GP said I 'manage fabulously' when I was worried about being ill with cfs, coping with my two small children, a crap marriage, running a home and embarking on career again.. he was not a man for compliments and knew me quite well so it kept me going for years that someone so honest, hardworking and decent thought that about me.

That me believing in them had changed their life.

It really touched me, it had felt small to me, but had meant so much to them.

Recently on holiday with the in laws in Norfolk and my mother in law commented how great I was at being a mum. We were sat in the lounge one evening whilst our partners had gone out to get dinner and she said how loving and and calm I was with them, that she admired my discipline style (think gentle parenting).
Honestly made my holiday! My 3 year old and 11 month old can be quite a handful and it was so lovely to hear what she thought.

Attended a wedding: I was 12-weeks pregnant, had gone to the effort of a gradual tan, having a good hair day, fab dress. I remember walking through the bar and a guy that I walked past said to his friends, "oh my God, she is stunning. She must be a model or something." I have had my fair share of insults and back-handed compliments about my appearance in the past, so this one keeps me going from time to time. I know it's shallow, but... I don't care. 😅

A very kindly and respectable senior colleague in France told me that I was "someone very charming". I think he meant enthusiastic and somewhat naïve, but I still enjoyed it. 😂

Quite a few people have told me that I have really nice eyebrows and also handwriting. Not at the same time. 🤣

I once got complimented on my parenting by two elderly ladies in a John Lewis cafe when I was having tea with very small DS1 and DS2. They were behaving immaculately for once and what the ladies said was so lovely.

On a much shallower level, a very attractive much younger man I know told me he thinks I'm beautiful. I'm really not, but god was I chuffed about that one!

When DS1 was a baby went on holiday. It was hell as he woke up all the fecking time and I was insane with lack of sleep. We were having a meal and playing with him on his chair. An old lady came over and said at the end of the meal that she had never seen a child so loved and happy. It stuck with me for years.

When I was leaving one job as a school-home liaison worker where I’d worked across a group of schools, two parents had flowers and chocolates for me and they both said things like I’d changed their lives and had tears in their eyes. I’ve worked in much more “important jobs” since but I look back at that moment and think nah that was some of the most important work I’ve did!

I also many years ago when I was in my 20s had a man run up and give me a bunch of flowers because I had made his day with my smile. He went bright red and ran away immediately. It was in a very busy street so lots of nice comments followed!

Also when I worked with foster care kids, there was one boy who had been with his foster family from about age 4-8 but when I was leaving that role he said he wanted me to take him with me, so I could be his new mum 😢

He was one of the most amazing kids I’ve met and it was a compliment he wanted me to look after him , but it actually broke my heart and I felt guilt for years afterwards that I wasn’t in the position to foster him and I wonder sometimes how he’s doing.

Decades ago overhearing the cleverest girl in our class at school saying to someone "she could be clever if she tried" about me. It was enough to know that someone thought I could be clever - I never actually bothered trying!

A man who came into work last week told me what a pleasure it is to come here because of my friendliness.

This thread is nice to read 😊 I can't recall ever having been complimented but to be fair I have always been fat, never been pretty, I have alopecia and I'm not clever or funny which I think is what a person is usually complimented on.
I do enjoy complimenting people, I have a weird theory that people who are good in any way should be told.

I was walking down the street, I was late 20s and a smartly dressed middle aged man walked in the opposite direction towards me.

I wasn’t wearing anything short or revealing for me to catch his attention but he stopped me to tell me he just wanted to say I was the most beautiful woman he had ever see, told me to have a good day and carried on his way.

Very short experience but it stayed with me, as it was the only time I’d been complimented that way without the man wanting something more.