I heard about this book while I was doing research on parenting. We are all quite familiar with the three styles of authoritarian, democratic and permissive parenting. Thanks to the millions studies conducted on this topic, it is more or less an established fact that the democratic style has the best results, while practicing the authoritarian style might risk the child becoming dependent or hostile towards authority for life. And here was a popular book claiming the benefits of extremely strict parenting.
I won’t lie. Just reading the synopsis gave me a shudder. Months of literature review and years of observation of parents around me had drilled in my head that authoritarian parenting always backfires. Children, more often than not, become rebellious in an attempt to break out of the tight clutches of their parents. Therefore, I dismissed this book as something I wouldn’t read as I knew I wouldn’t agree with a single word written in it.
Years later, during the Corona lock down, this title came up in a family book club and we realized that almost all the active readers of our family had read this one. Now, I was intrigued. I heard the magic word “hilarious” in one of the descriptions and I knew I had to give it a try.
I’ll be honest, it is funny as hell. And I must applaud the author for so genuinely reporting events which she must have known would most likely make the common English reader, quite simply, hate her.
This is the fastest book I have ever read. The situations are so mondain, the personalities so identifiable, that everyone will end up finding at least one incident that took place in their life exactly as it takes place in this book.
My favourite parts are the chapters on the dogs. Her feverish addiction to be the best, on top of each list, comes out in its crudest and funniest forms in these chapters. Also, it is in this part of the book that she first accepts defeat in some venture. Or probably ‘defeat’ isn’t the right word. Perhaps… ‘coming to terms with real life’ would be a more apt description.
Over all, I will not lie, I was right about not agreeing with the base idea of this book. Not because Tiger mothering is authoritarian, because tiger mothering is too much effort and putting too much at risk for probably an end I have seen many children reach with other parenting styles as well. However, as a reader, I truly enjoyed the experience of reading this book. This book drives home a point, in an entertaining way, that each parent is different and so is each child. Thus, each authoritarian, democratic or permissive parent is authoritarian, democratic and permissive in their own unique way. When it comes to raising children, I guess, the ‘fit to all’ philosophy just doesn’t work.
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