I like to say nice things<\/p>\n
about other people, in their presence and also behind their backs. Yet<\/p>\n
I try not to say overly nice things about myself. Praising others makes<\/p>\n
me feel good (and often comes naturally); praising myself makes me feel<\/p>\n
guilty. I used to be able to follow both principles consistently—until<\/p>\n
I had kids. Now, I often want to say nice things about my children, even<\/p>\n
when they are not around. But many people see praising one’s own offspring<\/p>\n
as a way of bragging about oneself. This is especially true of other parents,<\/p>\n
for we moms and dads are a very competitive lot (even the nicest ones).<\/p>\n
Indeed, when I praise my own children behind their backs, I feel a tinge<\/p>\n
of guilty pride that resembles the feeling I would have if I had just<\/p>\n
bragged about myself, even though I honestly do not see myself as responsible<\/p>\n
for the good things that my children do. (Then again, I’m not sure that<\/p>\n
I’m responsible for any good things I<\/i> may do.) Is this feeling<\/p>\n
of pride a sign that it is wrong—immodest—to praise one’s children<\/p>\n
when they are not present? Or is it right to praise them, as long as one<\/p>\n
does not feel pride when doing so? (After all, they are individuals in<\/p>\n
their own right, so why should anyone think about their parents when they<\/p>\n
are discussed?) Or is it right to praise them and <\/i>to feel proud<\/p>\n
about their good qualities, even though it is wrong to praise oneself?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I like to say nice things about other people, in their presence and also behind their backs. Yet I try not to say overly nice things about myself. Praising others makes me feel good (and often comes naturally); praising myself makes me feel guilty. I used to be able to follow both principles consistently—until I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}