If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others.
Haim Ginott


Can you just imagine the child just out of shot.
Mother: Well Mrs Willis, I can not tell you how much I appreciate (insert name) he was such a help to me this morning. He put his own dishes into the dishwasher this morning. He is growing to be such a big help to me.

One aside, I have also heard a very similar quote but it replaces children with husbands.