Tiger parenting

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A cartoon depicting tiger parenting.

Tiger parenting is a form of strict parenting, whereby parents are highly invested in ensuring their children's success. Specifically, tiger parents push their children to attain high levels of academic achievement or success in high-status extracurricular activities such as music or sports.

The term "tiger mother" ("tiger mom") was coined by Yale Law School professor Amy Chua in her 2011 memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. A largely Chinese-American concept, the term draws parallels to strict parenting styles ostensibly common to households in East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, along with other developing regions of the world beyond Asia, including Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Arab world. The tiger parent is a neo-stereotype of modern Chinese society, as well as in overseas Chinese communities around the world.

The stereotype is a Chinese mother who relentlessly drives her child to study hard, without regard for the child's social and emotional development.

The tiger parent is analogous to other authoritarian parenting stereotypes, such as the American stage mother, the Japanese kyōiku mama, and the Jewish mother (stereotype). Other similar or related terms include helicopter parent, monster parents, and Hong Kong Kids phenomenon. Tiger parenting is considered by some to be a form of child abuse.

Characteristics of tiger parenting

Schoolwork and academics

Tiger parents prioritize schoolwork above all else and highly encourage their children to participate in activities that are beneficial increasing the child's acceptance to the elite universities. Tiger parents constantly propel their children towards their commitment towards excellence.

In a similar way, Chinese tiger parents prioritize students' core academic subjects such as math, science, and language arts to ensure their children's superior performance in their core academic subjects.

Tiger parents emphasize a commitment towards excellence in academia and award-winning non-academic achievements such as performing classical music instruments. Some also choose to incorporate competitive sports for their children. This unusually high level of expectations may stem from parental love and care, as well as a strong desire to pave the way for their children's future success, as playing an instrument or being proficient in a competitive sport often serves as a cosmetic addition of extracurricular activities that may look good on college applications.

Many Chinese tiger parenting families have a huge emphasis on academic achievement. Extrinsic rewards play a role in the Confucian cultural value system Chinese parents communicate and inculcate in their children at a young age. The strong emphasis on high academic achievement is often seen as a source of stress for Western parents while Chinese parents see the stress of academic achievement on their children as a sign of good parenting reinforced by the entire Confucian cultural value system.

Discipline

Compared to hands-off or permissive parenting techniques, the hands-on approach from Tiger parents require higher psychological and behavioral control over their children. Psychological control comes in many forms but is rooted when parents work to ensure that their children are courteous and obedient. Meanwhile, behavioral control is focused on setting limits on children's activities, often referring to academics and limiting behavioral problems.

In Chua's memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, she mentions an incident that she yelled at her daughters, calling them 'garbage' in public. It has been shown that tiger parents are less likely than other parents to compliment their children in public as well. Children raised by tiger parents may be met with emotional threats and physical punishments if they failed to practice their piano scales and meet their expectations. Moreover, some tiger parents do not allow their children to make some decisions on their own, whether in academia or daily life. For instance, Chua's daughters were not allowed to watch TV at night or have sleepovers with their schoolmates.

Views on success

Tiger parents perceive a narrow definition of success that is rooted solely in a high level of academic and intellectual achievement. As academic success is often a source of pride for families and within Chinese and East Asian society at large, tiger parents typically view "success" as graduating from a top university such as Harvard, or other Ivy League institutions as the ultimate marker of prestige, granting high socioeconomic status, promising marriage prospects, and a highly respectable lucrative white collar career path such as becoming a high-end neurosurgeon for Mayo Clinic, a high-powered lawyer at a top law Wall Street law firm, a software engineer in Silicon Valley, a management consultant for Boston Consulting Group, or as an investment banker working for Goldman Sachs.

Tiger mothers also incorporate classical music training or extracurricular enrichment activities such as joining a sports team, including those with competitive structures and awards systems to bolster their child's university entrance application. This kind of early life training illustrates the tiger parent's zeal for education and the desire for their children to get into a prestigious university as tiger parents see the entrance into a top tier higher educational institution as a ticket that leads to a prestigious, rewarding, and lucrative white collar career filled with socioeconomic success. 

Tiger parents may look down on careers beneath their expectations – that is, a truck driver may be viewed as less socially respectable than a neurosurgeon.