This must be the "Mother-of-all-books" for 2011, in the sense that the author, Amy Chua has managed not only to ignite controversy and heated debate in the US but in doing so she has help to propel the book onto the best seller list of the New York Times and Amazon.com. I first heard about her from a colleague of mine and read her intriguing but yet controversial "Why Chinese Mothers are superior" article on the Wall Street Journal. The resulting controversy and debate surrounding her comments piqued my interest considerably and I decided to hunt for the book in Malaysia which was unfortunately not available in the major bookstores until mid February 2011. Being somewhat of a bookworm, I was determined to obtain a copy of the book before the Chinese New Year break and decided to order it from bookdepository.com which offered free shipping.
Once I got my hands on the book, I couldn'tput it down. With two young children to care for, the only time I could read it was after they had gone to bed. It took me 7 days to finish the book and while I found the book intriguing however the methods that Amy used to push and prod her daughters to succeed a bit to stiffling for my liking. I do agree that a certain amount of discipline and structure is necessary for young children who rely on their caregivers or parents to point them in the right direction but to control their choices is another thing altogether. However insane her methods might be,it appears on the surface at least that her eldest daughter thrived. She managed to maintain excellent academic results at school and the rigorous practice sessions that her mother put her through to ensure that she maintained a flawless performance as a concert pianist. Of course, her parenting methods and tactics did not work on her second daughter whose rebelliousness spiralled into violence. And this caused Amy to take a step back and let her younger daughter make her own decisions.
Overall, I think nobody should take her book too seriously. After all it is as she has said, a memoir and not intended to be a parenting guide. She is merely poking fun at herself as a parent and not encouraging anybody to emulate any of her methods. So for all the controversy that the book has generated, I think that at the end of the day, the parenting methods that you adopt would depend on what you as a parent think is best for your own childre. No one method works and I think parenting styles will also change as the child grows older and becomes more mature in her/his outlook of life. So there you have it - my 2 cents worth of thoughts on this!
PUBLISHED BY THE BRAIN ON BEHALF OF PINKY
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