And You Thought Tiger Mother Was Tough

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

[font=Arial]So, you thought that Tiger mother was bad, well meet Wolf Father, who claims that he beat his kids all the way to Beijing University. [/font]Xiao Baiyou claims that in order for your kids to be successful you must beat them. He is continually on Chinese chat shows advocating that beating children is the best approach to raising successful children. Wolf Dad, as he's been nicknamed, even wrote a book that was originally titled Beat Them Into Peking University, which is currently selling well. He describes himself as the emperor of his family and laid out a strict system of rules for his children that included beatings for sleeping in the wrong position. He would hit them with a feather duster on the legs or the palm of the hand and the beating had to leave a mark, otherwise it won’t work he believed. He started beating his children when they were 3 years old and didn’t stop until they reached the age of 12. His system involved all his children witnessing all punishments. A violation of the rules by a younger sibling would lead to the beating of an older sibling for not being a good role model. His adult children are unsure if the method is a good method for raising children and claim that they did not have a childhood. His wife claims there could have been fewer beatings, but ultimately she feels her children have no psychological trauma as a result. In response to Wolf Father, some children have voiced their opinions as well. Two kids wrote a book called The Complete Book of Combat With Mum, which contains strategies to repel punishments from your mother like for example hugging your mother’s legs in a loving embrace or locking yourself in your room.
This article got me thinking about how I was raised. I was spanked as child, but I did not feel that it led to me becoming a better person. I think beating your child is not the best approach, because in the end the child will hate you for it. I doubt if Wolf Father’s kids will raise their children in the same way, because ultimately you cannot deprive a child of their childhood. I do wish my parents had motivated me to go to college and gave more discipline. When I mean discipline I don’t mean beatings, because sometimes I was hit for disobeying my parents or for accidently breaking a dish, but not for doing badly in school. By the way, I think you can discipline a child without beating them, but I feel you must be strict from the beginning and you must tell your child the reason for their punishment. When I was in high school my Korean friends described how strict their parents were and I felt lucky I did not have their parents, but in the end they did better than me in school. Can there be a middle ground? Can you be strict and give your kids a chance at having a happy childhood? I will keep you posted; I just need to have children first. Until then maybe you can share this article with your children or your students and solicit their opinions. Here the link to the article I read today.
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/14/143659027/and-you-thought-the-tiger-mother-was-tough

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