"Junk praise" creating a generation of self-absorbed children

(From the Calgary Herald)

Here's a concept.

The majority of today's parents see their children as flowers. You know, you plant a flower, you give it lots of water and fertilizer and you expect it to blossom beautifully.

Naturally, nurturing our children with life's necessities is a good and necessary pursuit. Only we have a well-intentioned tendency--according to a book called The Self-Esteem Trap (Little, Brown and Company; $17.99)-- to drown our children in what is often unwarranted praise with the aim of building self-esteem.

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