Day 95 - Red and Blue

Thought of the day:  It looks like the Superior Chinese Mom controversy just won't go away.  After two weeks, you still read or hear about it pretty much every day.  That really makes you wonder why.  I think the book plays into people's insecurities and fears.  Insecurity - the book raises or reinforces your doubts in your own parenting.  We all want the best for our children, but children don't come with a how-to manual or guidebook and different experts tend to say different things, so we all struggle to find the right way to raise our kids.  We are afraid that we may be either too strict or too lenient, too vigilant or too inattentive.  We are most afraid that we may not get them to develop into their full potentials.  And there's also fear - as China is a growing economy that competes with the US, a book pitching Chinese style parenting to be superior to Western or American style parenting can strike a nerve or two in people, especially at a time when the American education system is considered lacking by some parents.  The style of parenting advocated by the Superior Chinese Mom is certainly more prevalent in China than in the US.  But in my university in China, some kids lost their bearing after they left home, and the most disoriented ones even took their own lifes when they realized that they were no longer at the top of their class.  And anybody who is exposed to the current Chinese society through personal experiences or current literature could see that there's a downward spiral of moral in the society.  The moral level seems to go in the opposite direction of the economic development.  It's very sad that a culture with such a long and rich history can go so low so fast.  Let's hope that it's all temporary and that it's just an inevitable cost of fast paced economic development.  But if the focus of parenting is on producing an adult who is academically or artistically or athletically superior and is capable of winning degrees, awards and medals, instead of an adult with sound moral principles and is capable of being good and just, something is amiss and the society will bear the consequences.

Photo of the day:

Lila wrapped in her two favorite towels after a bath.  She is blissfully unaware of all the talks and worries of the silly grownups on how to properly raise kids like her!