'Superior Parenting?' Is One Style Really Enough?

The question most new parents, even future parents, ask themselves is will they raise successful kids? Even if it comes to mind the day of birth or even the last day of high school, parents are always concerned if they are raising their kids in a successful way or if they are just messing up completely. Just like there is variety in cultures there is variety in parenting styles. Two articles that briefly describe two different parenting styles is the author of The Wall Street Journal Amy Chua’s “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”, and author and educator Rick Ackerly of the “‘Superior Parenting?’ That’s Crazy Talk. Children Need only 3 Things”. But is there really a method that is superior to the rest?

In “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” Amy Chua describes the differences between Chinese and Western mothers. Chua explains how Western parents worry more about how their kids are going to feel if the parent says the wrong thing, and on the contrary Chinese parents think that their kid should be strong enough to take any shameful thing their parent might say. Second she says, “Chinese parents believe that their kids owe them everything”(para 15), and that the child should always obey and try to make their parents proud because that is their only responsibility. Third, she states that Chinese parents think that they know what is best for their kids and that is why they must decide on everything for their kids. According to Chua, Chinese parents believe they do not have to consider what the child’s desire and preference might be.

Rick Ackerly argues that Amy Chua is wrong and that “no mother I [he] have known would claim that their parenting style is superior”(para 4). According to Ackerly, kids only need three things from their parent...

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...cessful kids they must have things that are contrary to each other. Chua believes in the authority figure, whereas Ackerly believes in leniency and just giving feedback. Even though these two articles approach parenting in two different ways, it makes me wonder if in fact there is a way to be superior and to always raise successful children. In my opinion, parents need to have a mixture of authority and trust in the child as a decision maker. First the parent should let the child decide on any extracurricular activity, but make the child stick to it without giving up. Next the parent should give the children freedom as long as their education comes before everything else. No parent is superior to another; all they need to have is love and trust that their child will do whatever makes them happy when older, and all parents can have the power to raise successful kids.