Cute? Perhaps not.

I was reading through the comments from this post by Random Penseur about a conversation he had with his daughter.

Me: Because you're wonderful and special, too. Now, who's the smartest, nicest, prettiest little girl in the whole world*?

*Maybe we overthink this, but whenever I ask her this question, I put the pretty at the end because the last thing I want to do is make her image conscious, which all girls are at some point, and to let her know that I rank other things above her physical appearance. My wife and I discuss these things. You do have to pay careful attention to what and how you talk to a child, I think. You send messages all the time. I want her to be secure that she is attractive, because it is foolish to say it is not important, but I don't want her to obsess over it. Again, maybe we're overthinking this too much!

And it got me to thinking, I can't ever remember being told by either of my parents that I was cute or pretty* even though photos show that I was not hideous. They are just not that type of person to give complements or boost self image.

In fact I can remember the first complement that I got when I was about 12 I think.
My friend Tania (who was and still is, very confident, outgoing and pretty) had been invited over for a sleep over and we were doing the girly nail polish thing late at night in my room and my mother came in to tell us it was time for lights out.
She told Tania that her toe nails looked very pretty and then she turned and said the same to me. That was a nice feeling.

*nor was I ever told I was clever or nice or funny. I was told lots of time I was rubbish though!

UPDATE: I've just re read the above post and it comes across as if I'm feeling sorry for myself. I'm not at all.
But I just want to make the point to those of you with children - it does make a difference.
Tell your children they are the most wonderful 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 .................. 25 year old you know. That's something that they will treasure.