And so apparently are all traditional Chinese parents, IMO. Just read this article to find out why. In fact, here’s a particularly horrifying excerpt:
I don’t think she’s completely insane, though. For example, I don’t think there’s a need to sugar-coat failure and tout self-esteem at every opportunity. But if I were her husband, I’d have divorced her on the spot after the nonsense quoted above.
[Note: This post has been edited to counter claims of “racism”.]
<< And so apparently are all Chinese parents, IMO. >>
That is racism and only brings down the quality of the forums.
If that’s racist, then she’s just as racist for writing an article called “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”.
In any case, my point was not to single out Chinese people per se. It was to highlight the apparently traditional Chinese method of parenting, as Ms. Chua outlines. Really, you should know better than this.
Thank god we have parents like this out there so that the world can still be blessed with performances of “the white donkey.” also, that song is racist.
Only liberal parents would push their child into music…
Lol u trollin? If so, I have no idea what you’re poking fun at.
you made me think of that Australian film with Geoffrey Rush
Which film is that?
‘Shine’
Ah, okay. Just read about it on Wikipedia. Definitely relevant! That kind of win-at-all-costs behavior is hazardous to one’s own and others’ health.
I’ve yet to find this ‘American style of parenting’ which is laissez faire and loving and hugely supportive of all endeavors. And if it exists, I have seen no evidence of it producing anything negative. In fact, it seems that many children succeed often times despite controlling, uneducated, or abusive parents (though not always); parents that are clever or privileged usually give them shortcuts others don’t get. So it annoys me that people make excuses for abusive or completely arbitrary parents who coerce and insult their children to get results. All I see in the comments section is “where has your ‘helpful’ parenting gotten you, you dumbass American swine! Your GDP is the suxxors!!!1111!!!”
It’s equivalent to “You still supporting the free market fundamentalism now that this crisis has hit us?”
I also see some comments that say sarcastic stuff like ‘oh lets just blame our Chinese mothers if we don’t succeed. We can blame them for everything.’ type drama. Which is internalization of a type of Chinese mother manipulative language no doubt. On the other hand, you ‘credit’ Chinese mothers for all success (and never personal creativity), but are unwilling to condemn Chinese mothers if their methodology ends up failing the children.
The most superior parents are Gypsy parents. Every child at one point decried the fact his parents were not Gypsies.
It’s no secret that northeasterly asians push their kids harder.
No one is implying otherwise, to my knowledge. But the kind of behavior she talks about in her article is largely insane IMO.
Just my experience with people from DC. They’re all liberal, and they have no useful skills. They’re incredibly pretentious and live through others (their politicians, their kids…).
There is a huge number of cases of chinese kids that were/are pushed too hard. They tend to become virtuous in doing one thing, but ends up with diminished social skills and creative thinking, it’s like someone who worked out the muscles too much and became to stiff.
^Common misconception. Bodybuilders are by far the easiest patients for chiropracters to adjust because their muscles are much more efficient and require less muscle tonacity to provide their passive functions (stabilization). Bodybuilders would be among the most flexible of athletes if their mass did not physically restrict their range of motion. Conversely, runners and cyclists have “spastic” muscle that is always stiff and tense.
When I was in grade 7 I was called up in an assembly at school for an award for the highest score on a provincial math test for elementary school students. You could see nothing but perplexity in the faces all around the room. I grew up with parents that expected nothing. I didn’t even take out the garbage. My life today is exactly the same as it was then, except for one thing. I now know that most people don’t give a rat’s ass what you can do, how fast you can run, how well you can calculate and most are too stupid to know the difference. The unfortunate offspring of legacy seekers are too easily defeated by the man who knows only what he wants.
When I was 7 years old, my parents told me now and then that watching television is a bad habit. Beyond that, they did nothing.
I watched more. I watched less. And eventually, I stopped watching television forever.
I put forth the conclusion that a mere petition from parents work when they feel the child can do his own thinking.
Also, table manners. My parents merely said that they were concerned whether bad table manners could lose us our European family friends. Now, no dinner ritual by any member of our family is done without even forgetting about how to pass the bowls and to whom.
I really don’t see how anything she did was really harsh or “crazy”. She’s just a stern parent so what? In an interview her kids were happy that she pushed them to do things- so what’s the big deal? I personally don’t know any kids that have been traumatized for life just because their parents were tough with them. My parents were harsh but I knew they still loved me- it wasn’t coming from a place of hatred so there’s a big difference.
Nothing wrong with hard work- its not like her fingers were bleeding all over and she was being tortured for christsake. I’d marry her 8 times over.