10 Reasons You Should Be a Tiger Mom

March 15, 2016

Top Ten Reasons You Must Be a Tiger Mom or Your Kids will Grow up to be Losers

Alright, moms. It’s time to toughen up. In her controversial book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom, Amy Chua explores the difference between American softy parenting versus Chinese strict parenting as her children grow up in the U.S. under her watchful gaze. Her own parents had been pretty rough: no boyfriends, no sleepovers, constant drilling, and a “that’s not good enough” for an A-minus. Since Tiger Mom believes her parents instill hard work and guide her towards success, she supports their methods and inflicts them upon her own two daughters.

I say “inflict” because these methods aren’t all cushy and sweet, and they’re definitely not typically American, despite Chua’s claims that they can be. When her daughter Lulu tries to learn a piano piece, “The Little White Donkey,” Chua tells her it’s got to be perfect by the next day. While Lulu struggles to get it, Chua carries her dollhouse to the car and threatens to give it to Salvation Army piece by piece. She threatens her with no lunch, dinner, or presents for two to four years. Then she calls her “lazy, cowardly, self-indulgent and pathetic.” But here’s the thing. Afterwards, when her daughter does get it, she’s beaming and proudly playing the piece over and over. She’s earned her self-esteem—it wasn’t just handed to her.

Although Amy Chua has gotten embroiled in some controversy for some of her parenting methods, like the one above, the truth is that Americans have been too easy on their kids. That’s why we’ve got an obesity epidemic and kids moving back into their parents’ houses at a record pace and the most complainy, spoiled children in the entire world. Let’s take a page out of Chua’s book and drill our kids back up to snuff.