Thank goodness my mom is a horse

I finished reading Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. I consider myself a terribly slow reading but even I was able to finish this book in two sittings. It's a quick read.

This woman sounded crazy and over the top at times. Bah! I first thought- what stereotypes! Asian children are all two years ahead of their peers at math and never attend sleepovers?!? I LOVED sleepovers. But then I remembered how my parents quickly wrote up pages of math problems for me whenever I made the mistake of saying I was bored. I must have said I was bored quite a bit because I whizzed through multiplication problems while my fellow first-graders were still counting on their fingers to do addition. I think I was always ahead in math when my dad was around because he would check out various textbooks from his college library so I always had ample practice problems and every time I had a question about my current homework he would also make me to do the next two lessons I haven't learned yet. (reading and english were a completely different story.) Also, there were plenty of times my grandparents and parents called me what translates to "bad egg" or "stupid egg" and my mother told me I was garbage more than once. But Chua was right. Though it sounds like totally crazy things to say to children in English in a "Western" country, it was acceptable and I didn't hate anyone or really think I was stupid or garbage. My family loved me and I thought I was just stuck with a lousy nickname.

My craziest realization was that the prestigious pre-college Julliard program that Chua and pushed her violin music prodigy daughter Lulu to audition for, that hyped up super-selective program, leading to more out-of-the-way violin lessons that she probably sacrificed more vacations to pay for, the program that was dominated by Asians, that foreigners moved to America for, the one that her daughter ultimately did not get accepted into... my cousin was in that. Her family moved from Taiwan to New Jersey with the goal for my cousin to one day attend Julliard. And she did. For violin. (FYI, all that hard work and sacrifice was well invested because she sounds amazing.)

As outlandish and fantastical as her story may seem, it happens. Asian families really do sacrifice a lot to push their kids to be what seems the best and often times do get great results. They say behind every great man is a great woman, behind every outstanding kid is probably at least one strict, extremely dedicated parent.

Although I must say I was pretty aghast at some of the things she said and did to her kids. Not accepting birthday cards because they aren't up to her standards? Eek. I would have cried too.