a praise sandwich

Have you ever heard of the theory of the Praise Sandwich?  I'm not sure if it is an actual term or just something my BIL John made up.  But it's a pretty interesting theory.

The idea of the praise sandwich is to sandwich a bad thing with two good things. Like, if you're annoyed at your kid, you could say something like, "Wow, you are really great at riding no-handed on your bike!  Unfortunately, you're grounded because you were riding no-handed on my bike without asking me to use it.  Your hair looks great!"

Or something like that.

Get it?

Praise (bread): Great at riding with no hands.
Bad thing (peanut butter and jelly): Grounded for taking something without asking.
Praise(bread): Nice hair!

This is not exactly a great example.  Note how shocked Dean looks because clearly someone neglected the other piece of bread.  It's a system people.  TWO pieces of bread, praise in the middle.

Apparently, it's supposed to lesson the impact of getting in trouble?  You know, take the sting out of criticism I'm thinking.

Or you could use it in a scenario something like this:

"You are very strong and manly.  Can you take out the garbage that smells like ass and mow the lawn that looks like a hay field?  Wow, your tie matches your suit perfectly!"

Praise: Strong/manly
Bad/annoying: garbage and mowing
Praise: matched himself all by himself 

See?  Just sandwich the bad/annoying thing with a couple of positives, and you're golden!  Why didn't I think of this before?