Parenting Cannot Just Be One Size Fits

I'm A Proud Strict Mom And, You Know, I'm Really Proud Of The Two Daughters I've Raised. And I'm Especially Proud Of My Relationship With Them. We're Very Close. I Think We're Good Friends.

When I'm Not The Tiger Mom, I'm A Professor At Yale Law School, And If One Thing Is Clear To Me From Years Of Teaching, It's That There Are Many Ways To Produce Fabulous Kids. I Have Amazing Students; Some Of Them Have Strict Parents, Others Have Lenient Parents, And Many Come From Family Situations That Defy Easy Description.

Be Modest, Be Humble, Be Simple.

I Was Raised, Myself, By Extremely Strict But Also Extremely Loving Chinese Immigrant Parents. To This Day, I Believe That Their Having High Expectations For Me, Coupled With Love, Was The Greatest Gift That Anyone's Ever Given Me. And So That's Why, Even Though My Husband Is Not Chinese, I Try To Raise My Own Two Daughters The Same Way.

The Fact Is That Chinese Parents Can Do Things That Would Seem Unimaginable-even Legally Actionable-to Westerners. Chinese Mothers Can Say To Their Daughters, "hey Fatty-lose Some Weight." By Contrast, Western Parents Have To Tiptoe Around The Issue, Talking In Terms Of "health" And Never Ever Mentioning The F-word, And Their Kids Still End Up In Therapy For Eating Disorders And Negative Self Image.