At the beginning of this year, Amy Chua hit the headlines across the world for her super-strict approach to parenting. Dubbed the ‘tiger mum’ concept, Chua published her extended advice and beliefs in the book ‘Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother’.
Chua spoke proudly of banning sleepovers, refusing her children parts in the school play and demanding nothing less than A grades across the board. The uproar reverberated across the blogosphere and now, after the dust has settled, our very own White Lily Mummy discusses the similarities – and huge differences - between her own situation and Chua’s approach.
I overheard some people talk about the concept of 'tiger mums', and I thought I would Google it - about 56,100,000 results (0.11 seconds).The tiger mum in question here is Amy Chua, the daughter of Chinese immigrants and now a professor and author.
I am also a daughter of two Chinese immigrants. My parents were both born and raised in mainland China and immigrated to the UK some 20-odd years ago. I had a very happy childhood, but my parents worked long hours and as a result were not around very often to do the everyday parenting things. I had to do my own homework, get myself ready for school and look after my little sister but my parents did the very best they could in a country where they could not speak the language.