For most of my misspent youth, I envisioned Home Economics as a strictly girly thing where you learn to iron and cook. My brother a while back picked up a Home Ec. book and was pleasantly surprised. He said it was more like a “how to be an adult” textbook than anything else.

I remember one passage that talked about proper ways to respond to well wishes and compliments. The recommendation was to almost always simply say “Thank you.”

You don’t want to downplay the compliment, like saying “Oh, it’s not really that good a weasel farm. Look, that one’s dead.” This implies that the complimenter has bad judgement. It also looks like your fishing for further compliments.

You don’t want to totally agree with them and expound on it. Talking for fifteen minutes about how Tom the Weasel can do backflips may not be what the complimenter had in mind. Using the compliment as a springboard to talk about and praise yourself is not good form.

You also don’t necessarily want to respond in kind with a compliment of your own. It cheepens both the original compliment and your own as part of some obligatory compliment transaction, not a genuine expression of opinion. You can always pass on your own sentiment at a less back-patting moment.

Saying “Thank you” recognizes the kind words, is modest, and doesn’t dwell on your magnificence.