TIGER MUMS

The Chinese-American mother Amy Chua, a Yale University law professor, popularised the term tiger mum after the release of her bestselling book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, in 2011. In the book, she tells us how she raised her two daughters, Sophia and Lulu, by being a strict and authoritarian parent. Chua is a real tiger mother! She has high expectations of her children and is not afraid to push them. She sets clear goals and doesn’t allow the child to do something different from them. Here are some of the things that Chua didn’t allow her children to do:

• Attend a sleepover

• Have a play date

• Be in a school play

• Complain about not being in a school play

• Watch TV or play computer games

• Choose their extracurricular activities

• Get any grade less than an A

• Not be the top student in every subject (except for Gym and Drama).

Chua says these strict rules are the reason why her children have been so successful in school. Her eldest daughter Sophia is now a graduate of Harvard and a current law student at Yale. Commenting on her mother’s methods of raising children, she said, ‘Everyone talks about my mother threatening to throw my toys in the fire, but the funny thing is that it was not a major memory. I remember my childhood as happy.’

Chua’s child-rearing practices received much criticism, but Sophia believes her mother’s strict discipline pushed her to be better. ‘I am not scared of my mum and never have been. It was always clear in my mind that she was on my side, no matter what. She had high expectations because she had the confidence that I could do amazing things.’

Chua’s youngest daughter Lulu is a second-year art history major at Harvard. Lulu echoed a similar sentiment when she said, ‘I think I had a tough childhood, but a happy one. I was playing up to six hours of violin a day and it was too much. However, when I rebelled because it was putting too much of a strain on me, my mum could easily have given up on me. If I did poorly in a test, she did not let me lie in bed and wallow. She’d tell me I needed to get up and study to get a better mark so I would feel better. She pushed me when I needed it.’

Chua’s daughters believe their upbringing was a happy one with much parental support. They plan to raise their children in the same way. At the end of the day, their family is ultimately a loving one as Lulu described: ‘We have been a close family, even when there was a lot of screaming. When it was over, that was family time and we’d go upstairs and watch movies together.’