Too much praise?

I read this about Jerry Seinfeld in last week's Parade magazine and agreed with every part except his first poison P.

Although his own children obviously want for nothing, Seinfeld works hard not to be too indulgent. He bemoans the way some people cater to their children’s every whim. Seinfeld has three rules of parenting, what he calls “the poison Ps.” The first is Praise—“We tell our kids, ‘Great job!’ too much,” he says. The second is Problem-solving—“We refuse to let our children have problems. Problem-solving is the most important skill to develop for success in life, and we for some reason can’t stand it if our kids have a situation that they need to ‘fix.’ Let them struggle—it’s a gift. Just as he’s explaining the third P—“Giving your child too much Pleasure”—a woman comes in the deli with her three young daughters and buys them all huge cookies. “Can you believe this?” Seinfeld says, gesturing like his TV counterpart used to. “It’s 5:30 p.m.—when will they have dinner? At 8?”

I strongly believe kids need to have problems and be able to work out their own problems. Like for instance hard teachers in school. I'm not the mom who puts in requests for certain teachers. I believe that if one of my children has a hard time with a teacher, that's okay. They'll learn to deal with it because there are going to be hard people to deal with throughout their life. Children today also have way too much pleasure and not enough work. Part of the reason I'm excited to move to Lake Point is our one-acre lot with a lot of dirt for my kids to learn to work in. I grew up with a lot of dirt and a big garden and I want the same for my kids.

However, the one issue I take with Seinfeld is overpraising our kids. I don't think you can tell your kids "Great job" too much. There will always be the world telling them otherwise. At the end of the day, they need to be able to walk into a home where they feel safe and loved and mom and dad can build them back up again.