Would she be proud of you?
Tamara Sheward and Jenny Valentish (eds)
Your Mother Would Be Proud of You: True Tales of Mayhem and Misadventure
Just as I started to write today's item on the above book, my brain wandered off at a tangent (which it does quite often). The positive thing is that it was a vaguely related topic, which is sadly not necessarily normal for me. This tangent concerns the use of the expression 'I'm proud of you'.
Your mother and father can certainly be proud of you (as they have had a lot to do with most things you achieve). A teacher could be proud of you for passing an exam, for example, as he/she has had a hand in that A grade. You can definitely be proud of yourself as in the main you are responsible for the successes in your life, although it would be rather odd to be proud of yourself for winning the lottery as you've done nothing to deserve it.
Which brings me to the heinous crime of saying "I'm so proud of you" to someone you hardly know. An example is Jesse Mulligan interviewing a world famous classical musician on National Radio recently and saying "I'm SOOO proud of you" when she mentioned a competition she had won. It is condescending, sycophantic and cringe-making. Make sure you avoid this unctuous, oily, insincere use (which just makes everyone think of Uriah Heap).
