The Type Of Parenting Associated With The Tiger Mother

The type of parenting associated with the tiger mother has been a subject of intense controversy for a very long time. Even though the term itself only became part of our understanding in 2011 thanks to the very controversial book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, by Amy Chua, there were always questions of how much discipline is healthy and necessary for a child. In Chua’s book, she contrasts the two sides of parenting styles: what she calls â€Å"Chinese† parenting and â€Å"Western† parenting. â€Å"Chinese† parenting refers to the strict and intense style of upbringing in which the parent has (or tries to exert) complete control over their child. The parent is wholeheartedly focused on honing their child’s skills in school, music, maybe a sport, or†¦show more content†¦Western parents argue that children should be allowed to make mistakes and become better people by learning from those errors. Thus, they say that the tiger mother doesn t love their child because it s much harder to watch your child make mistakes in the hopes that they will learn from them than it is to simply reprimand them (and correct and intervene, even before mistakes are made or it’s too late to be good at anything). When Chua s book came out, the media received it with horror. Chua was called a horrible monster, the worst mom in the world, and many other unflattering names.. Chua shocked much of America with her seemingly brutal parenting: many people were flabbergasted by the idea that a parent wouldn’t let their child attend a sleepover, or make them practice 4 hours of violin a day, or threaten to burn their dolls if they didn’t listen. The tiger mother had exploded onto the scene, and the onlookers were horrified by the carnage they saw behind her. How could a mother be so tyrannical and abusive? Some even called for Chua’s arrest for child abuse. In her book, she talks about how a survey showed that Chinese mothers thought that academic success reflected good parenting, whereas Western mothers thought that â€Å"stressing academic success is not good for children†. This shows that what seemed ordinary for Chua and â€Å"Chinese† mothers were strange and al ien to Western mothers. But does