Are you a tiger mom? In case you haven’t heard, a controversial book from 2011 still has parents stirring. The author is Amy Chua and she has written a parenting book called “Tiger Mother.” In a nutshell she proclaims Chinese parents to do a better job than the rest of us.
Why? They are much stricter and stringent. Her children have turned out well and she believes it is the result of her teaching and training. Honestly, my idea of strict is taking away the television for the rest of the day but her ideas are clearly different.
To give you an idea on what makes her a tiger mother; here are just some of the rules she has implemented: Speaking only their native language, daily math drilling, can never be in a school play, no boyfriends, three hours a day of practice on musical instruments, no sleepovers and no play dates.
She believes in her children doing their best and tells a story in her book of one time returning a handmade birthday card to her child because it wasn’t good enough. She handed it back to her child and told her that she wanted a better one. Apparently her daughter was totally fine with it and did just that. Okay, my daughter would have been in tears. Is that really wrong?
At any rate, she has ruffled more than a few feathers but there were some things she said that had me thinking. For instance she talked about self-esteem issues that so many Western children suffer from. She said that the way the Chinese approach this is not to worry that their child lacks it but to assume they have it.
While her methods may be controversial she does teach valuable lessons to her children including taking responsibility, being self-reliant and not putting blame on others.
I hate to say it but I have to agree with her that in general, parenting in the Western world has become much more permissive than it used to be. It seems like the children oftentimes have the upper hand. Children make threats against their parents, hold things against them or just openly defy them.
While I don’t consider myself to be a tiger mom I do understand some of what this mother is trying to convey. She has made some moms angry but to me, she is someone who is willing to go against the mainstream and stand up for what she believes in.
Image by: idiva.com
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