So does it still count as a compliment?

Sometimes at the store, when I'm forced to make meaningless small talk, I'll just compliment the customer, especially if she's a middle-aged woman. (I mean, chances are, she prob thinks she's unattractive and her husband is prob cheating on her... so might as well compliment her cheap-looking Walmart handbag, plus I can walk away proudly feeling like Mother Teresa.)

There are a lot of people who drop off their stuff in their child/parent's name. Sometimes I am truly astounded because the mother will look way too young to be the child's parent... which results in my wanting to yelp, "Whoa, you look WAY too young to be [so-and-so]'s mom!" At this point, I'm not even trying to be complimentary... sometimes I'm just shocked.

Half the time, I feel like the person should be really happy... particularly in the type of community where I grew up when people prob had kids when they chose to have kids. And everybody wants to look young, right? But then I realize... huh... maybe she IS too young to be this person's mom. Maybe she just got knocked up by some loser boyfriend, and every time a well-meaning stranger compliments how young she looks, she's reminded that her hypocritical cheating dad (whose actions didn't teach her to respect herself) wouldn't let her get an abortion because it was against their so-called morals.

Or maybe it's just good genes?