Defense of the Guilty, Ambivalent, Preoccupied Western Mom
Here are some of the things that my four children of a Jewish mother were always allowed to do:
• Quit the piano and the violin, especially if their defeatist attitude coincided with a recital, thus saving me from the torture of listening to other people’s precious children soldier through hackneyed pieces of the juvenile repertoire, plink after ever more unbearable plonk.
• Sleep over at their friends’ houses, especially on New Year’s Eve or our anniversary, thus saving us the cost of a babysitter.
• Play on the computer and surf the Internet, so long as they paid for their Neopet Usuki dolls and World of Warcraft abomination cleavers out of their own allowances.
• Participate in any extracurricular activity they wanted, so long as I was never required to drive farther than 10 minutes to get them there, or to sit on a field in a folding chair in anything but the balmiest weather for any longer than 60 minutes.
• Quit said extracurricular activities, especially if their quitting coincided with league finals that might have demanded participation on my part exceeding the requirements stated above.
In the days since this newspaper published Amy Chua’s simultaneously entertaining and infuriating excerpt from her new book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” my two elder children, 16 and 13, have devoted a remarkable amount of time to raging against the essay and crafting compelling and bombastic rebuttals to be delivered to Ms. Chua herself, should they ever encounter her.
I am so glad that this Jewish mother is happy with her choices but the fact of the matter is that the general public believes that Asian mothers are superior esp. Chinese not Jewish.
Again, learn from what they have to offer instead of acting out by starting a mud-slinging campaign involving your daughters. Three words: Get Over It
Also, I would like to apologize to Chinese and Asian Mothers everywhere for any ignorant individuals blaming child suicides on them. Suicide is a selfish act and cannot be blamed on anyone. Only the good lord really knows the answer and has the right to take away a life. We are all the victims of bullying, hardships and so forth throughout our lives and unfortunately some people are weaker than others and cannot cope. That is sometimes due to a psychological chemical imbalance or a personal choice. The parents suffer the most! That is a below the belt statement and is extremely low class to say the very least.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Child suicides? Jews versus Chinese? What the hell are you talking about?