I recently finished "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by Amy Chua. I am sure most of you have heard about it or have read the article on the Wall Street Journal. If not, you can read it here. It has received a lot of negative feedback. Personally, I enjoyed the book and although I know I can never be as extreme a mother as Amy Chua was/is as a mother, because that requires a lot of time, energy, money and toughness I do plan on instilling in my children that academics are first and foremost, classical music should be learned and appreciated and travel and other cultures are important. I also agree that it is important to have high expectations for your children and that they should not always be allowed to make their own choices. I know Amy Chua is extreme and over the top, but so many parents I know are far too relaxed or give their kids too many choices and I see the negative impact it has on their child's education, behavior and in the end on their adult life. I see parents that have very minimal expectations of their children and in turn the children produce very minimal results.Now that I have read about one extreme form of child rearing and as I see the other opposite extreme daily, I hope that when I become a mom I will be able to find a good fit/model that is right for me and our family.
What kind of parent do you plan on being?
I read the article but i havent read the book yet. For sure going on my to-read list.
ReplyDeleteI am the mother of 12 and 4 year old boys (super young mom here) and my biggest fear in life is to fail as a mom. Sometimes i think that I am too strict with them, but then we get to visit our friends or family members and thats when i realize that im actually doing a good enough job. I absolutely love it when people compliment me on how well behaved our children are.
Now that im older i always find myself asking why weren't my parents strict with me. I much rather have my kids grow into adulthood and look back and be thankful that i pushed them to make education their only priority.
Like you said, i dont have the money or energy to control every single minute of their day but i do try to be on top of everything and push them way harder than I ever was.
Well now Im rambling lol Being a mom is hard but we all do our best. When you become a mom it will come naturally to you.