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A review by qtpieash3
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
2.0
The coda of this book was its saving grace when Chua pointedly said the first 2/3 of the book were a satirical take on her life and parenting philosophy and that some of the lines ("I'm going to burn all your stuffed animals!!!") were supplied by her daughters since it sounded like something she would say.
The first 2/3 of the book Chua was insufferable - she was demanding, demeaning, and demoralizing to her daughters. She forced them to practice their respective instruments - piano and violin - for hours while constantly critiquing them. She once handed back birthday cards they had made for her because she felt they hadn't put enough thought or effort into them. Everything she thought, said, and did goes so much against the parenting philosophy I'm creating for myself. It was hard to read at times because her daughters were just kids and she was demanding what felt like the world from them.
Not surprisingly, her younger daughter eventually rebels and gives up her sole focus on the violin. Chua seems to immediately unclench and decide that choice is not such an awful thing after all while still clinging to the fact that her Chinese parenting is what got her daughter this far.
I will admit that there are some aspects of Chinese parenting that are intriguing since the children - in spite of everything - most of the time do seem to deeply respect their parents. But as Chua admits it can also go very wrong, as it did with her own father, who escaped his parents the first chance he could and was essentially estranged from them. Western parenting can go wrong in its own myriad ways, as well, of course.
Overall, this one was just ok for me. I think I'll be sticking with Dr. Jane Nelson and her positive discipline approach for parenting advice.
The first 2/3 of the book Chua was insufferable - she was demanding, demeaning, and demoralizing to her daughters. She forced them to practice their respective instruments - piano and violin - for hours while constantly critiquing them. She once handed back birthday cards they had made for her because she felt they hadn't put enough thought or effort into them. Everything she thought, said, and did goes so much against the parenting philosophy I'm creating for myself. It was hard to read at times because her daughters were just kids and she was demanding what felt like the world from them.
Not surprisingly, her younger daughter eventually rebels and gives up her sole focus on the violin. Chua seems to immediately unclench and decide that choice is not such an awful thing after all while still clinging to the fact that her Chinese parenting is what got her daughter this far.
I will admit that there are some aspects of Chinese parenting that are intriguing since the children - in spite of everything - most of the time do seem to deeply respect their parents. But as Chua admits it can also go very wrong, as it did with her own father, who escaped his parents the first chance he could and was essentially estranged from them. Western parenting can go wrong in its own myriad ways, as well, of course.
Overall, this one was just ok for me. I think I'll be sticking with Dr. Jane Nelson and her positive discipline approach for parenting advice.