. It caused a furor in the States, mainly due to a Wall Street Journal headline which read Why Chinese Mothers are Superior. The article generated over 8000 comments. But when my Mum recommended I read it also, I realized that I was missing out on a worldwide phenomenon! And it made me start to wonder what sort of parents Eric and I will be.The basic premise of the book is that Western parents tend to coddle their kids, go fairly easy on them, and value creating self esteem over measurable achievements. By contrast, Chinese parents (a term which Chua defines loosely to include all sorts of high-achieving ethnicities - often immigrants) expect nothing less than A grades, in addition to excellence in other areas, such as music, and will go to fairly drastic lengths to help their kids achieve their expectations. A tad stereotypical, sure. But there's more than just a grain of truth in it, too. And Chua acknowledges that so-called Chinese parenting is not foolproof, when she relates her own comeuppance at the hands of her 13 year old daughter.
I think there may be a little of the Tiger Mother in me. Not for nothing was I called Tolerance Torres at university (with typical British irony, my so-called tolerance was just the reverse). And I was accepted at my first job despite being told that in one of the character tests, I had "steamrollered" over the other candidates' objections. (They also told me that my logic was good, and my ideas were strong, but that perhaps I should consider an alternative management style to get my way).
As for Eric, his primary concern is to see how young he can get the twinlets whitewater rafting. So far, for any serious sort of river, the answer seems to be 4. I hope his patience can hold out until then, but at least he can amuse himself in the meantime by teaching them self-sufficiency, particularly with regards to how to swim!
Of course, much will depend on the personalities of the twins themselves. For that, barring any current empirical evidence, beyond a convincing ability to kick hard, I turned to the Chinese zodiac, which tells me that they will be born under the sign of the Rabbit. I was delighted to learn that Rabbits are "classy, sophisticated, expressive, well-mannered and stylish, [and] enjoy leaning about cultural issues and learning about people from other countries". Now those sound like pretty neat kids.
It's odd that while there are classes for most things in life (like training dogs) few parents ever take any kind of educational stab at learning what they should be doing. Like most parents, we will probably make it up as we go along, and hope for the best.
I see only one fly in the ointment with this plan. The zodiac helpfully talks about compatibility between signs (presumably for future romantic interests). The problem is that Rabbits apparently don't get on with Roosters or Rats. And, Dear Reader... I'm a Rat.
