Analysis Of Amy Chua's Battle Hymn Of A Tiger Mother

I am Mom. Hear me roar...purr.

There are very few roles in life that are as wonderful, exhausting, and criticized as being a parent. Part of the hardship is that parenting comes with no instruction manual. One moment you are a singular person with your own personal concerns. The next moment, you have this tiny little being peering up at you and a realization sets in that everything you do or do not do is going to impact this minute person. This insecurity in parenting abilities is where parenting books find their niche, including Amy Chua 's Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mother, where she states her belief that only extreme Chinese style parenting is effective at raising intelligent children that lead to successful adults. Not surprisingly,

Some of these things include: having a playdate, playing sports, bringing home anything less than an A, and not practicing any instrument other than violin or piano. In her text she shares a story of when her seven-year-old daughter is struggling with a piano piece and attempts to stop practicing and leave the piano. Chua responds with forcing her back to the piano, threatening to burn her stuffed animals, and threatening to donate her daughter 's much loved doll house to the Salvation Army. She states that her older daughter had mastered the same piece at the same age, so the younger daughter should be able to do so also. However, through the fighting and tears, her younger daughter eventually prevails and finally masters the

They need to lighten up and roam free..." As a parent, this statement proves an individual belief for myself. Not one of agreeance, but that a parent does not need to be a strictly Chinese-style parent, or a strictly Western-style parent. I feel that I can applaud Chua 's dedication to her children, while not agreeing with her methods. It is not easy to coerce ones child into something that they do not want to do. I will even go as far as to agree that children benefit from an extracurricular activity, a required amount of study time, and limited computer and/or video game time. However, that is where Amy Chua and I part similarity in our beliefs. I support her dedication, however, I cannot applaud her approach. That being said, I can also not support more the more Western style parenting methods that Rosin references where achievements and academics are not an important part of the learning and growing process. In fact, Meghan Daum explains my stance on the middle ground of parenting very well by saying, "...permissive parenting affects not just children but society" (271). I affirm that it is our job as parents to help shape our children into well-functioning, knowledgeable, and empathetic individuals. This cannot be done if a child is left on his or her own to roam without restriction or