Comments on: How to survive piano practice – the Tiger Mother way

By: Denden

Denden — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 01:36:06 +0000

Amen to that. In my 11-year-old son’s hockey games, when the difference between the scores is about 7+, the scoreboard “freezes” the winning team’s score until the losing team “catches up”. What’s wrong with showing facts as they are? In my daughter’s 3rd grade class, her teacher would usually give out a study guide a day or two before a test and the test was basically the study guide without the answers.

LikeLike

By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 14:10:53 +0000

Columbia Law School was a disappointment because “it wasn’t Harvard”. So very sad – for you AND for them! Congrats on being able to turn your Tiger Cub childhood into fuel for a humorous book, Mike. Speaking of funny, have you seen this hilarious video on Asian Parents?

LikeLike

By: Mike Wong

Mike Wong — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:55:38 +0000

The Tiger Mother system can be very destructive for a child’s psyche. I was raised under such a system and I decided to write a humorous book about that experience. The funny thing is that I went to Columbia Law School, but every step along the way to that moment of success was deemed a failure by my tiger parents. Here is my book, if people are interested. It is very funny.

LikeLike

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 07:17:58 +0000

I agree with some of the above comments…

We need our children to work harder… Though I disagree with the threats…

… There must be balance.

LikeLike

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:09:58 +0000

So true. This is the Land Of The Wimp children.

LikeLike

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:08:26 +0000

My mother is Trinidadian, and she doesn’t play. My piano teacher is Asian, and is my second mother. People cringe when I tell them she used to hit me when I made a mistake. My first recital my fingers were whacked when I messed up the duet with her. But she loves me like her daughter, and treats me so. I learned that there is nothing I cannot do,as long as I do the work.

My mom cannot stand the American “don’t hurt the poor child”. This is life. We have to learn to go after goals and succeed. Children are lazy unless you force them otherwise. And with the piano, (and many other things) kids will soon love what they are good at.

People cannot stand Amy’s way because it convicts our American Hovering. She shows how pathetic parents that are lax are. And guess what? People hate her for it.

LikeLike

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:01:45 +0000

We need to get over our shock. Because it produces lazy ineffective kids who don’t believe they can do anything. One of the daughters actually wrote a letter thanking her mom. I know my mom loves me because of how hard she is. She cares enough to encourage me to practice instead of spend the same four hours
playing angry birds. Lulu learned that she could do ANYTHING, as long as she worked. That’s a lesson people need to be teaching.

LikeLike

By: BulbBat

BulbBat — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 00:08:58 +0000

Such an interesting article. Except for the name calling and threatening bits (which made me cringe in dismay for the poor little girl) the one message that does come out loud and clear is this parent’s high expectation of her children’s work ethic. Just showing up is not good enough, hard work is rewarded. Is this such a bad thing, in a society where we have successfully raised a generation of self-absorbed, entitled young adults who have cruised through life expecting that the real world will coddle them like their doting mummies and daddies always did? Life is not like that – a big shock to many modern kids. My parents weren’t Chinese (they were immigrants from Hungary during the 1950s) but they too expected their children to develop a strong work ethic.

LikeLike

By: Flotsam

Flotsam — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:18:59 +0000

“I threatened her with no lunch, no dinner, no Christmas presents, no birthday parties for two, three, four years. I told her to stop being lazy, cowardly, self-indulgent and pathetic.”

I felt sick when I read this. Threats, namecalling – this is what passes for parental love in Chua’s traditional Chinese culture? In 2008, the Chinese Association for Mental Health reported that suicide rates for young people in that country (ages 15 to 34) were among the highest in the world, adding: “School children are particularly susceptible to suicide due to high pressure at school and home, and fear among many children of not being able to meet high expectations.”

LikeLike

By: Tired Dad

Tired Dad — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 20:29:31 +0000

This is an extreme example but in a way, I think she may have a point. We have swung the parenting pendulum so far over to the extreme that we’re now afraid to endanger the tender psyches of our little darlings.

We don’t keep score in school sports because it would be too traumatic to be on the losing team. We praise every tiny accomplishment, no matter how trivial, as if it WERE a piano concerto. We don’t “fail” kids in school anymore because that would damage their self-esteem. Instead, we keep promoting kids who can’t read or function in the classroom until they become somebody else’s problem in high school, or drop out, whichever comes first.

Let’s face it, we’ve been raising a generation of spoiled, self-absorbed brats with a poor work ethic – Chua’s story is merely a reality check and that’s why we all hate her for it.

LikeLike

By: Seattle Gal

Seattle Gal — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 04:32:32 +0000

OMG! I cannot even believe this woman. Not that I’m unaware there aren’t many parents like her, but I’m stunned that she would actually write a book bragging about calling her daughter names like this. How is this good for a little child?

LikeLike