A typical tiger mum’s rules:
• No sleep overs.
• Homework + extra study after school.
• No extracurricular activities (Unless it’s an instrument like piano or violin.)
• Limited television and computer time.
• (You would think their children would sleep early but) Sleep only after tutoring and studies have been completed-which could be very late.
A few years ago, a journalist named Lenore Skenazy wrote a column in The New York Sun about letting her nine-year old son ride a train by himself. Somehow this grew to become a huge issue and earn’t her the title of AMERICA’S WORST MUM. Now America has crowned Amy Chua their new “worst mum.” She is a law professor at Yale University and is a great follower of “Chinese parenting.” According to this approach, any grade less than an A should not be tolerated. Sleepovers, television, computer games and play dates should be banned. If children do not obey these rules they should have their toys taken off them until the learn their lesson. I think this a little bit extreme. Chua has even written a book called Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mother.
Western parents give their children more freedom. They give their children a chance to get their feet wet and live life. Although I admit, it is blatantly obvious that some western parents don’t really mind what happens in their child’s future. Now I come to the mums who don’t let their children out because they are afraid what the world will do to them. I call these mums “mother hens.” They don’t let their children out of their sight and form a protective bubble over them. These mother scare me almost as much as tiger mums.
I’m quite sure that there are western mothers who have adopted the “tiger mum” ritual and who think it is a perfectly good routine. It is up to the parents of a child to decide the way they are brought up and I respect that completely, but my opinion is that the child shouldn’t do anything they don’t want to do, take a stand and face their “tiger mum.”
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