Ghostwriter
My father was great at starting out a compliment…
I am so proud of you. You did a super job,____________
Your room looks great, ____________
I like the way you did that, __________________
Wow, I didn’t know you could do that ___________
To the best of my knowledge and recollection he has never given anyone a compliment with out adding on that “word” and more information. Recently he got me on a bad day and my sister was sitting next to me when he called. He was on speaker. He said “Thanks for the gift it was great and I interrupted with “Dad, please just close your mouth right this minute and I am going to hang up. Things will perfect.” I quickly hung up the phone and my sister stated to laugh. You know he will call back.
“Yes, but the phone is turned off. It will keep him busy all day trying to get in the last word. It may be a bit disrespectful and maybe he will understand how much that one little word leads to a whole bunch of heartache.
Do you know what the word is?
ah the famous hanging but.
the difference, between a loving compliment.
I love your writing!
and a snarky compliment
I love your writing but, you did this wrong.
Well, at least he tried, I guess nothing I did was good enough for Dad but he sometimes gave me a hint of approval
No idea, my Dad always called me baby girl.
My dad would say “but” so every compliment came with something he didn’t approve of.