23 January 2011:
I saw a mum beating her 4yo son publicly just now.
It was during my tuition when I went to the toilet and saw the scene. The son seemed to be misbehaving, so the mum gave him a smack. This made me think of a new controversial book by Amy Chua.I first heard of it on the radio, when Melanie Olivero was giving a book review. It rather surprised me because she ended with 'This is one book I am not recommending to others.' So, I went to find out more. Turns out Amy Chua wrote a book about 'Tiger Mums', what her parenting style was like.
She would be very strict with her children, forbidding them from going to a sleepover, and making them having all kinds of lessons. All this in an American society (she is living in America). No wonder the book attracted so many people when it was published.
Generally, people were critical of it, arguing whether her parenting style would be too strict. After all, Americans are more lax in their parenting style. They are more tolerant of their children ... which is probably why there are so many spoilt brats in America.
I'm not saying that Asian kids are all very obdient and that. But when you compare American and Asian kids, you really can see the obvious difference. Asian kids were mostly brought up in a very strict environment. Only till now that the parenting style has laxed a little due to western influence.
What do you think? Are parents in Asia really too strict?