My whole discovery of backhanded compliments started with my mother. Don't get me wrong, I love my mom, and she is usually really nice, and has no problem feeding me the typical mom bullshit about how cool I am and how I'm probably the world's best colorer. But occassionally I see true glimpses of brutal honesty hidden within her reassuring statements which lead me to believe that I probably will not be a supermodel-doctor-astronaut combo when i grow up like she's said.
Turns out, once you graduate high school the parent filter begins to falter. You no longer get the "you'd look great even in a paper bag" response when asking about an outfit. It starts to become "Maybe go with the black top instead" or, "Does it really matter?". Or in my case --
"Hey Kelsey, I like that sweater you're wearing, makes you look so thin the way it covers up your thighs!"
".....awesome.... thanks mum"
"What's that look for? I mean it"
"....great..."
That perfect confidence boosting machine starts to hiccup and you end up questioning everything you've ever been told. Did that third grade bowl cut actually look good? Were apples really as delicious as the coveted Lunchable? And it gets to the point where you interpet every word from your parents as blatent insults. "Kelsey, would you like some extra salad?" "What the hell is that supposed to mean? Are you saying i'm fat!?!?!? Why am I constantly victimized in this house hold?"
Actually... it's probably best not to overreact about backhanded compliments. In most cases they can likely be disregarded as accidental. And in this case the ones i've recieved from my mom led to a blog title, so I guess no harm done...ish
Backhanded compliments have pretty much nothing to do with what the posts here will be about. I don't know what the posts will be about yet. But basically i'm sure something I say will offend somebody at some point in time, so when that happens i hope the offended individual can flash back to reading this story and find some comfort in the fact that my mother is probably still attempting to comfort me by saying I look skinnier when I wear all black.
