I thought about it more over night. I guess my aim in parenting is for my kids to be happy when they are adult. Hers is for her kids to be successful, and, if she is lucky, that will also mean they are happy in their success.
I'm curious about different parenting practices in different cultures. One of the first things in the article is the qualifier that she's using "Chinese mother" and "Western parents" loosely. I thought the "overachieving Asian kid" stereotype was one of the harmful ways prejudice gets perpetuated, but it's still interesting to hear how it works in at least one Chinese family.
Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld's article defending her mother points out that a lot of people misunderstood her mother's sense of humour and I wonder how much of that is a cultural thing. She wrote it when she was only eighteen, which might be too soon for her to be able to judge whether she was harmed, but it's still another side to the story.
I don't know. I'm not out to be an apologist. What I do know is that reading Amy Chua's stuff for me is equal parts horror and jealousy. I was raised to be competitive, but not that competitive, and it answers why
( ... )
Yes, that great review was the one that inspired me to read it. I ordered it at the library - it just took this long for the book to be free at the library. Clearly a lot of people wanted it.
One thing that I haven't seen discussed anywhere (understandably enough, since it's a pretty minor thing, but still) is that the style of parenting described is a fundamentally...unsustainable style of parenting? In the sense that it only works if there are only a few "tiger mothers" around. If all mothers were "tiger mothers" then the kids being two years ahead of their classmates wouldn't work because all the kids would be two years ahead. If all mothers were "tiger mothers" then their kids wouldn't be able to win medals because all of the kids would be practicing like crazy. This style is only effective if you're one of a very small number of people who use it.
I don't know, it bothers me somehow that it's such a fundamentally competitive mindset oriented towards outdoing other people. And it bothers me that being a "tiger mother" absolutely cannot be a categorical imperative because it would just not work
( ... )
Okay, coming back to rephrase something: "it bothers me somehow that it's such a fundamentally competitive mindset oriented towards outdoing other people" is not QUITE right. I mean, it does bother me, but that's not the relevant point.
Better phrasing would be "it bothers me somehow that it's such a fundamentally competitive mindset that its entire existence depends on there being other, not-as-successful people to outdo."
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I'm curious about different parenting practices in different cultures. One of the first things in the article is the qualifier that she's using "Chinese mother" and "Western parents" loosely. I thought the "overachieving Asian kid" stereotype was one of the harmful ways prejudice gets perpetuated, but it's still interesting to hear how it works in at least one Chinese family.
Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld's article defending her mother points out that a lot of people misunderstood her mother's sense of humour and I wonder how much of that is a cultural thing. She wrote it when she was only eighteen, which might be too soon for her to be able to judge whether she was harmed, but it's still another side to the story.
I don't know. I'm not out to be an apologist. What I do know is that reading Amy Chua's stuff for me is equal parts horror and jealousy. I was raised to be competitive, but not that competitive, and it answers why ( ... )
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(The comment has been removed)
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I don't know, it bothers me somehow that it's such a fundamentally competitive mindset oriented towards outdoing other people. And it bothers me that being a "tiger mother" absolutely cannot be a categorical imperative because it would just not work ( ... )
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Better phrasing would be "it bothers me somehow that it's such a fundamentally competitive mindset that its entire existence depends on there being other, not-as-successful people to outdo."
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