Superior Chinese Mothers And Why Kids Love Their Strict Mom

Tony Tran

ASA 2 Section 2

Week 9

I felt I could really relate to the article “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior” and the follow-up article “Why I Love my Strict Chinese Mom”. I believe asian american kids grew up in a more strict and harsh life than the white kid life that asian americans were surrounded in. And this made our little developing minds very envious for such a nice life. But the thing is, I believe we didn't develop a mindset that thought about our future in the long run. And this is where tiger parents come in. They made sure us asian kids are geared and fully competent to go to that next stage. And I am pretty sure once young asian adults look back, it was really worth the sacrifice and the battle against our emotional and mental mindset of that time. However, it begs the question for all asian american kids in the US: when does tiger parenting go too far and essentially “break” a child? As seen in “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior”, what if Lulu simply  wasn't able to create two rhythms with one on each hand?

When exactly is that invisible line that asian parents may cross that will break their child to completely hating their existence and their parents? It is like running. Asian parents are simply pushing the kid to go past ‘The Wall’ (in running, its where runners feel most tired before they can actually keep pushing themselves to run much longer) to unlock a child’s full potential.

This is a real-world question I believe can only be answered by a couple of variables: how moderate the parents can be between their western and tiger sides and the innate traits of the kid themselves that can determine the successful raising of a child. The first variable is my opinion that the best of two worlds can create the ultimate kid that has possibly the most balanced combination of positive and negative reinforcement (its something that cannot be attained but striven for). The second variable is my feeling from my personal mentality or personal characteristics make me automatically a “good” asian kid without much need for the parent to push myself at all. And this can be juxtaposed to Pokemon where some innately have good traits and some have bad ones.

Overall, I believe tiger parenting is still a good thing; however, I just don’t want to completely ignore that a hint of western parenting is also healthy and positive for kids.

Q: I myself see the present western parenting style and see that it creates kids with an assortment of bad traits and so I wonder if it is just me seeing this or is it a growing trend throughout families?