Be Modest, Be Humble, Be Simple.

My Goal As A Parent Is To Prepare You For The Future, Not To Make You Like Me.

There Are All These New Books Out There Portraying Asian Mothers As Scheming, Callous, Overdriven People Indifferent To Their Kids' True Interests. For Their Part, Many Chinese Secretly Believe That They Care More About Their Children And Are Willing To Sacrifice Much More For Them Than Westerners, Who Seem Perfectly Content To Let Their Children Turn Out Badly. I Think It's A Misunderstanding On Both Sides. All Decent Parents Want To Do What's Best For Their Children. The Chinese Just Have A Totally Different Idea Of How To Do That.

Parenting Cannot Just Be One Size Fits All.

Real Self-esteem Has To Be Earned. I Also Believe In Virtuous Circles, Like, Nothing Is Fun Until You Are Good At It. It Is Great If You Can Instill In Children The Ability To Not Give Up, To Have A Work Ethic.

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.