2011-05-15, 08:39 AM
Otherwise meaning stereotypical Asian parenting. I want to hear some serious thoughts on it. Basically, I think Tiger Parenting should be viewed upon as child abuse. Just reading some of the things Amy Chua has written in her book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, makes me think child services should descend on her household.
Refusing to let her daughter get up from the piano until she had learned her piece. Not for water, not to go to the bathroom, just hours of being chained to a piano. Refusing them dinner until they did what she said. Restricting their social lives. Slandering them to their faces. Acting like anything less than an A is the end of the world, and punishing them until they get just that. Depriving them of their own thought. The list goes on.
So, starvation, forced containment, verbal abuse, forced sleep deprivation etc. If a parent was doing this to anyone else, the Police would be at their doorstep within minutes. Why is it acceptable to allow them to do it to their child, a vulnerable being? I don't think it should be.
Someone being your child should in no way make this behaviour acceptable. I once had to talk a suicidal friend in to calm because of his tiger parents. This is not me trying to deprive parents of their right to parent, this is about me wanting children to be afforded the same right to decent treatment as adults. If you want to see me as attempting to destroy the concept of a family, then fine. In all honesty, I don't agree with the concept of the family. The relationship between a parent and a child should be one of a guide. I think any parent who thinks they have the right to exercise excess control over their child is wrong, and Tiger Parents take it to a dangerous level.
Refusing to let her daughter get up from the piano until she had learned her piece. Not for water, not to go to the bathroom, just hours of being chained to a piano. Refusing them dinner until they did what she said. Restricting their social lives. Slandering them to their faces. Acting like anything less than an A is the end of the world, and punishing them until they get just that. Depriving them of their own thought. The list goes on.
So, starvation, forced containment, verbal abuse, forced sleep deprivation etc. If a parent was doing this to anyone else, the Police would be at their doorstep within minutes. Why is it acceptable to allow them to do it to their child, a vulnerable being? I don't think it should be.
Someone being your child should in no way make this behaviour acceptable. I once had to talk a suicidal friend in to calm because of his tiger parents. This is not me trying to deprive parents of their right to parent, this is about me wanting children to be afforded the same right to decent treatment as adults. If you want to see me as attempting to destroy the concept of a family, then fine. In all honesty, I don't agree with the concept of the family. The relationship between a parent and a child should be one of a guide. I think any parent who thinks they have the right to exercise excess control over their child is wrong, and Tiger Parents take it to a dangerous level.