Parenting Cannot Just Be One Size Fits

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.

I Worry That By Losing My Temper So Much And Being So Harsh And Yelling So Much That, By Example, I Will Have Taught My Daughters To Be That Way, And I'm Now Constantly Telling Them Not To Do That.

When I Was Little, My Parents Really Only Wanted Me To Be A Scientist Or A Doctor; They Had Never Even Heard Of Law School. I Think Even These Days If You Were To Tell Your Mother You Want To Be A Fashion Designer, Or An Artist Or A Writer, A Lot Of Asian Parents Would Be Alarmed Because They Don't Think That's A Secure Career.

The Most Successful Hyperpowers Are The Ones Where There Was Actual Intermixing. Tang Dynasty China Was Chinas Golden Age, And Contrary To What I Was Told When I Was Growing Up, Tang China Was Founded By A Man Who By Todays Standards Was No More Than Half Chinese. It Was A Mixed-blood Dynasty That Pulled In "barbarians" From The Steppe.

Parenting Is The Hardest Thing I Have Ever Done. I Tried To Find The Balance Between The Strict, Traditional Chinese Way I Was Raised, Which I Think Can Be Too Harsh, And What I See As A Tendency In The West To Be Too Permissive And Indulgent. If I Could Do It All Again, I Would, With Some Adjustments.