The Best Parents

By James (Age 10, Renaissance College Hong Kong)

Once upon a time, there was a boy called Dell. He had a very strict father and mother. They made Dell do all his homework in three hours. They also forced Dell to play the piano and the violin for at least one hour every day. They didn't let Dell go for sleepovers and after-school activities, and made him sleep at ten o'clock every night. They also didn't let Dell eat unhealthy and food that was meat. Dell only could eat vegetables. He only got friends that were very dorky, like people that had very good grades. Dell also needed to get good grades. Dell needed to walk to school every day because his mom thought that he needed more time to do more exercise.

One day, when Dell woke up, he looked at the clock and it was eleven o'clock on a Sunday morning. He quickly woke up and ran to brush his teeth and change his clothes. He dressed up and saw his dad and mom cooking breakfast. He ran down and dropped to his knees and said, "I am sorry, dad, mom, I know I should have woken up at eight o'clock in the morning, but I didn't. Sorry, can you forgive me?"

His dad said, "We turned off your alarm clock because we think we've been too strict on you. We read this article about tiger parents. We know that we should give you freedom. So, today, the whole day is your freedom day. You can do whatever you like and you can say all of your wishes out and we will make them come true."

Dell stood up and hugged them both and said thank you. He wrote down a lot of things and told his parents to buy them. The things he wrote were: PSP (new version), NDS I, iPhone 5, iPod Touch, a MacBook Pro, a 43-inch television, and a Visa card. He played with all of the things he bought the whole day until it was 11:48. Dell asked his dad and mom if he could have two wishes. He said, "Dad, mom, can I have two wishes? If I can, my first wish is to own the things you bought for me today. The second wish is that I want to have just a little bit of freedom: like after I finish my homework, piano and violin, can I play games for awhile? I want to have sleepovers with friends and I want to sleep at eleven every night. I also want these wishes to last forever in my life."

The next day, when Dell woke up in the morning, it was eight o'clock. Dell ran down and saw that breakfast was ready. Dell ate his breakfast and changed his clothes and went to school. This time, Dell's dad and mom said to drive him to school. After school that night, when they ate dinner, Dell's dad and mom said, "Dell, we thought about it all night. We want you to have more freedom. Now, we will set the rules again. You can play with your things after you finish your piano and violin and homework. Piano and violin practice will be changed to fifty minutes. You can have other friends but they can't make you go crazy because you are our only son. You still need to get good grades but you can get one B. We will not be so strict like before. You can eat a little meat but you still need to eat vegetables. You can sleep at eleven o'clock but no later than that. The real thing is, we just want to help you." Dell hugged them and went to play the piano.

Tiger Parenting

By Hannah (Age 12, Canadian International School)

Hi, I'm Rebecca Johnson, Becky for short. I am a 13-year old girl and still have mean, cruel, evil, bad, annoying - and don't forget old - parents. Anyway, I slipped and fell down some stairs, and I must have gone through some kind of magic portal. After I got out of it I woke up in my parents' room and I was an adult. When I went to look around the house I saw my parents in child-form and they were on the computer, playing. My dad said to me, "Hi mom, where is BREAKFAST?!"

"Yeah, give me the breakfast!" repeated mom. I was shocked, confused, and scared. Then I had an evil thought in my head... "Hey mom, cook me some breakfast!" demanded mom. Now it was time to give them a piece of my mind!

"Do it yourself, you little lazy butt!" I replied and they went off and listened. If I was in their shoes I would have shouted, but I didn't have to. Ha ha ha! I treated them like my parents treated me!

"You get me a snack and you be my footrest!" I commanded. My parents quickly followed my orders and got to work with no comment. Awesome! I drove them crazy. I made them to work, I made them clean up, and I didn't let them eat or sleep.

"Hey mom, don't you have to go to work?" asked little mom.

"Oh right! Bye! Oh and when I come back I want you to have done your work and gone to asleep!"

At work the boss made me do a whole bunch of things I didn't want to do. He made me work to the bone! I thought I was about to explode and I hated him.

When I got home from work, the whole house was spotless and my parents were asleep in bed. I felt sorry for them because now I knew why they were mean to me. Their work was really stressful!

The next day my parents woke up and they were adults and I ran up to them and hugged them tightly. Then they said they had a weird dream and they explained the whole of yesterday to me. I told them to work for someone else and they did. Now, when they come home, they have a smile on their face and a skip in their step. I was also treated differently and I liked it. Now they don't punish me anymore when I do something bad!

Tiger Moms

By Vanessa (Age 13.5, St. Paul's Convent)

Recently, Amy Chua, Yale professor and author of the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, published an essay on the Wall Street Journal. It caused such an uproar that everyone around the globe is talking about it.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

In her essay, she talked about the 'teaching' methods she used on her two daughters, Louisa and Sophia. She expected perfect grades from them, and never allowed them to go to sleepovers, watch TV, or have boyfriends. They were made to practice violin or the piano for excessive hours too.

To tell you the truth, I don't agree with Amy Chua. How can a kid survive without her social life, Internet, or fun? It's just crazy. The methods she used were extreme and way over the line, and in short, inhumane. I can't picture how it would feel to be forced to do whatever my mother says especially when my social life is at stake.

On the other hand, I do have to give her credit. She was able to train her two daughters to ace practically every test or exam they have. They are also not hooked on drugs, computer games, or other entertainment that may take up most or a lot of their time. This is not what every child can achieve as there are many temptations around us these days, may it be computer games, TV, money, etc. What Amy did well was that she was able to prevent her daughters from being affected by temptations. She has made them strong and independent through her harsh training. However, I don't think that this should cost a happy childhood. Furthermore, it seems to me that she made it their life goal to get straight-A's in everything and just neglect everything else. Though she may have given them extremely good training on the piano and violin, I have a feeling that her daughters don't even know how to do the dishes.

Furthermore, I don't agree that Amy should just force her daughters to do whatever she wants them to do. Forcefully making someone do something is not the best way to get good results. Instead, she can settle for methods that are not so aggressive. She can sit down and discuss with them and try to work out a timetable or plan that the three of them are satisfied with. Amy should also remember that nobody is perfect, least of all her daughters. Although setting up a high standards will help her daughter academically, she should never forget that Louisa and Sophia are just young girls at heart. It is very natural for them to want to socialize and just have fun.

In a nutshell, I really think that Amy should just let her daughters make their decisions for themselves. Let them fail, and encourage them to try again. Keeping them in an ivory cage is not going to help them become strong. Only if they truly experience it for themselves can they understand and learn from it, and that is definitely not something straight-A's on every report card can do.