Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

While I was waiting for M and M to finish their time on the "mountain" at Ski Dubai, I found myself without anything to read. So off I went to Borders and found this crazy book. I have heard a lot of controversy and fuss about this Mom, and I was very curious. It is a brutally honest memoir of her Chinese approach to parenting. The book is sometimes funny, sometimes outrageous as she describes how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones.

It is an extreme parenting style that I would not embrace, but it certainly produces high achieving, disciplined kids! For example, here are 10 things the author's daughters were never allowed to do:

1. attend a sleepover 2. have a play-date 3. be in a school play 4. complain about being not being in a school play 5. watch TV or play computer games 6. choose their own extracurricular activities 7. get any grade less than an A 8. not be the #1 student in every subject except gym and drama 9. play any instrument other than the piano or violin 10. not play the piano or violin

The fact was, they spent so much time on homework and instrument practice, they had no time for any of the above. However, the girls were performing internationally by ages 10 and 12. The author says Western parents would complain about getting in 1/2 hour of music practice - she says it is hour 3 and 4 when it starts to get tough!

Here is a little blurb from some of her threats to her daughter:

"According to Sophia, here are three things I actually said to her at the piano as I supervised her practicing:
1. Oh my God, you're just getting worse and worse.
2. I'm going to count to three, then I want musicality.
3. If the next time's not PERFECT, I'm going to take all your stuffed animals and burn them!"

I think you will enjoy this short read - entertaining and thought provoking for sure. You will have to laugh at some of the absurdity of it as she writes with candor and humor. It left me shaking my head but at the same time recognizing all she wanted was the best for her children - like all mommas all over the world.