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I went and saw Amy Chua, notorious author of Battle Cry of the Tiger Mother, debate against Justine Roberts, of Mumsnet fame, last year. The debate was a bit of a no contest.
Tiger Mum
Tiger Mum was glamorous in a super fit "my plastic surgeon has become a personal friend" kind of way. She was also witty, highly articulate and passionate about the right way to parent.
Mumsnet
Mumsnetter, by contrast, was a bit flabbier all round - less glamorous, less eloquent, less passionate and unfortunately seemed to have a piece of that morning's breakfast stuck to her long green dress.
In all honesty I had probably voted before they started speaking…
Mother in Law
And yet I'm no longer quite so sure. My mother in law has just been staying. She has many great qualities but having fun isn't one of them. She's far too busy worrying about table manners, about cleaning up and about P's and Q's (well S's and M's actually as she's French) to have much fun.
I always thought there was a choice between success and happiness.
I mean push your children hard enough à la Tiger Mum and you can force them to be successful. And don't they have a much better chance of being happy if they're successful? Or is that complete codswallop? Maybe happiness is the only thing that counts and actually you have a much better chance of success if you're happy?
Who knows…
The Other Party
The third member of the panel was a Hungarian professor by the name of Frank Furedi. Apart from spending most of the debate almost comatose with boredom he did wake up at one point to say that we're pathetically obsessed with parenting in the West (Western world I hope rather than West London)! Brain surgery is complicated; parenting isn't. You should just get on with it and talk about more interesting stuff instead.
Three cheers to that and three cheers to a weekend filled with McDonalds and iPad games as well!
Ben Black
