Is it normal to falsely compliment someone's kids?
My boss has a teenaged daughter who is his pride and joy. He raves about how beautiful she is and how he has trouble keeping boys away from her. He talks about her aspirations to be an actress and he shows me pictures of her and her friends and when he does this I agree with his statements of her attractiveness and even pop in a few myself.
The issue is that I don't find her attractive at all. I mean, I guess she is cute but she does nothing for me. I don't have exceptionally high standards, a woman does not need to be a super-model to attract me but this girl does absolutely nothing for me.
I find myself doing this often when it comes to parents talking about their kids. Even if their kids are barely intelligent enough to screw in a light bulb or barely coordinated enough to hit the broad side of a barn with a baseball bat, when their parents compliment them and brag about them I feel it rude not to agree. It's almost as if I'd be violating a social courtesy if I disagreed with them.
Is it normal to falsely compliment someone's kids?