Tiger mom gets a mixed response

On 30 January 2011 the Sunday times published an article on Amy Chua and her book "Battle hymn of the tiger mother"  This author has ignited controversy with her parenting memoir. According to extracts from her book, Chua believes an A-minus is a bad grade, children should not be congratulated in public. Chua has called her children names like "pathetic", "garbage" and "fat".

According to Judith Ancer, a psychologist based in Johannesburg, Chua may very well have a high IQ but would score really poorly on any measure of
emotional intelligence.

 In her book Chua distinguishes between the "Chinese parent" and the "Western parent" she mentions that the first believes that children must be denied play dates, sleepovers, acting in school plays or watching TV, and no grade less than an A must be tolerated. In the latter she says children are coddled into mediocrity, protected from hurt feelings and praised for trying hard when they get a D for maths. Where Western parents are pleased if their child practises the piano for an hour, Chua reckons that the Chinese mother thinks the first hour is easy, two and three being the tough ones.Much emphasis is placed on drilling and repetition until "perfection" is achieved.

This is the kind of material extracted from Chua's book that has resulted in mixed response. Below are some responses found in the January 30 issue of the Sunday Times.

Allow youngsters to make mistakes and learn to persevere despite their failures. Teach, guide, support, and role model appropriate behaviour, while letting them discover their uniqueness, and in doing so fill them with a special kind of love - feeling understood by their parents. - Claire Marketos 

Childhood is a basic right and no parent has the authority to take it away; they are indeed the "losers". - VM Lloyd, Germiston

We would do multiplication in our heads until we could sing the numbers in our dreams. But this was just the beginning.
At home we used to wake up as my father left for work at 4am and only went to sleep after him, usually not before 10pm.
But I am eternally grateful, for while training in exile with the liberation army, I was in cruise control while for others it was hell on earth. Viva the tiger mom. - Moss, by e-mail 

 Each child should be viewed as an individual and one realises that we cannot use the same formula for all our children and expect the same results.

For more on Tiger mom visit  www.timeslive.co.za