The best compliment you ever had.

[NovemberMorn]

Just to cheer myself up after reading a really sad thread.
Can you remember and tell us the best compliment you have ever been given?
Go on, blow your own trumpet, we dont do it often enough.

I was told that I look like Catherine Zeta Jones when she was young. I don’t think I do, but I’ll take it!

Not so much a compliment as such but was a lovely moment.
I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes when I was 55 and was telling my mum. She said “well I’m not surprised, all the women in our family developed type 2 diabetes when they are 55, I did, my mum did and her mum did”
She had completely forgotten that she adopted me as a 5 week old baby so I wasn’t actually related to any of them in the slightest!! 🤦‍♀️😁

Oh, that's beautiful.

It's so true, a kind word, praise and encouragement can even change lives.

Usually we keep compliments to ourselves, most women are usually not prone to 'blow their own trumpet'.
It's so good to be able to mention them here, and heart warming to hear of others.

I love that everyone is enjoying the compliments that other women have received.

I always used to think that a person can have ten compliments and one insult, but it's the insult that has a lasting effect.
Obviously this isn't the case.

I’ve sometimes thought of complimenting parents who have well behaved children in cafes and restaurants but never have. I will next time!

Brilliant thread OP - very heartwarming

You’re the most badass woman I know.

I try to compliment parents when out or sympathise if they are in the trenches of tantrums. I will never forget the lady who put her arm round me in Aldi when ds was 2 (now 16 and diagnosed autistic) and he was having the biggest tantrum and would not move. The lady put her arm round me and told me it would be ok and I was doing a great job. I stood in the aisle and cried - she was so lovely! I wish good things for her always

One of my friends at school was into old photography, especially black and white portraiture shots like old Brigitte Bardot or Debbie Harry etc. Out of the blue she told me I was beautiful and looked like Jean Shrimpton in the 60s. JS was utterly beautiful, with good bone structure. I came from a family where my sister and father really put me down. I felt overweight, a bit of a doughy lump, and nondescript in looks, forgettable in every way. She gave me such a boost. Funny I can see it more now I have got older, but at the time I could not see what she meant.

My husband maintains I have the sexiest shoulders in the world. I do have great shoulders, I never show them off, but they stayed good even though the rest of me has gone to shit.

For all that compliments about looks are fab, the real compliments I think are about character. The only ones I can think I have been given like that are I am tenacious and I am organised.

Three different people (all some years apart) told me that they would have loved to have had a daughter like me. It was such a lovely thing to hear and meant far more than they realised as my own parents seem to find me a huge disappointment, for reasons I've never really understood.

When our son (typical 18 year old, not a bad lad but fairly privileged/sheltered and took everything for granted) went to uni, we visited him during the first term and he was telling us about some of the friends he had made and the difficult starts in life they had had and he said "I'm just so lucky to have had parents like you". Didn't make a fuss, just smiled and nodded but inside I was so delighted to be appreciated!

My 3 year old told me my face ain’t as scratchy as his dads… but my legs are!!

We were playing a party game as a group of about 5 couples. We were going around the circle saying what we liked best about our partner. Unexpectedly, my then boyfriend now husband said “she’s ambitious”. I am. I didn’t know others knew that about me.

A colleague recently told me that she loved my outfit and that I always wear such nice clothes. I make all my own clothes (I didn’t tell her this) so it felt like an extra special compliment!

1. Your little boy is the kindest kid I know, he’s a credit to you.

An older gentleman in a cafe once told me that he sees me and my daughter in there often and he always thinks I seem like a really good mum. It’s something that has stayed with me for a long time - we do go to that cafe often, as an orchestra practice in the free space and my 4yo enjoys hearing them rehearse while we eat cake and read books.

Friend's son age about 5 totally unprompted told me I looked pretty. Not sure I did (although had a nice flowery dress and makeup on unlike usual jeans and bare face). Made my day and clearly I still remember it over 10 years later!

Now that really IS a massive compliment. Better than being told you are beautiful or brainy or anything else really. That's the pinnacle.

It was from someone I really liked and admired as well 😭

“You’re a very nice person & come in a very nice package”, said to me by a male platonic friend.

I have two, neither of which made much sense to me at the time (and still don't), but I like to think about them from time to time.

Having won a very prestigious debating competition while at school - one judge's note said I had 'the passion and verve of a young Vanessa Redgrave'.

Sitting barefoot next to a friend of a friend at a party, who apparently later told our mutual friend that I had the most beautiful feet he'd ever seen. Bit weird, but whatever.

I say it's important to celebrate the small wins.

I worked for a lady, she was my boss but also my friend.
Unexpectedly she had a massive stroke, collapsed and never regained consciousness. I sat on the floor talking to her, checking she was still breathing, but feeling useless really till the ambulance arrived.
She died a few hours later.

When I saw her mum a few days later, she said she was glad I was the one who was with her daughter when she 'died'.

I found that heartbreaking tbh, but it was a really lovely thing for that mother to say when she was in the throes of grief.

Back in the early 80's I was mistaken (by several people!) for Sheena Easton on CCTV screens in a shop.

I was nearing 50 when my brother's friend commented that I looked younger than I had ten years earlier.

My favourite though has to be, after explaining a complex financial calculation to a colleague: "wow, you're just like Carol Vorderman". So proud!

@nocoolnamesleft
Another slightly mad conversation was when I was showing my mum photos of my newly born first DGC and she turned to my brother and said “he looks a bit like you”
My brother was adopted 2 years before me and has completely different birth parents to me!
He said “mum, I can assure you I have absolutely nothing to do with the Genetics of my adopted sister’s grandson!”
Mum just burst out laughing! 😆

A beloved family friend said “ if I’d been able to have child, I would have wanted it to be you”.

My Aunt when she was dying said “thank you for always including me in your life, I’ve enjoyed you so much”

welling up now. X