Tiger Mom.

We had some of our dearest friends over on Saturday night for wine and treats and upon leaving the lovely husband asked, "So what is the big deal about this tiger mom?"  I laughed because we were saying our goodbyes and it was completely out of context, but just that morning I had pulled my new Time magazine out of our little box only to find that there was a gigantic woman on the cover and a small, little child standing between her legs.  In fact, here is the very picture!

So I have course went to find my Time magazine so I could read a little excerpt from it before the Rumbles' exited our apartment.  I admit, I was slightly shocked and extremely appalled to find out what this whole Tiger Mom thing actually meant, and eventually stopped reading.

Here are a few of the lines I read to our group...

It was the "Little White Donkey" incident that pushed many readers over the edge. That's the name of the piano tune that Amy Chua, Yale law professor and self-described "tiger mother," forced her 7-year-old daughter Lulu to practice for hours on end — "right through dinner into the night," with no breaks for water or even the bathroom, until at last Lulu learned to play the piece.

For other readers, it was Chua calling her older daughter Sophia "garbage" after the girl behaved disrespectfully — the same thing Chua had been called as a child by her strict Chinese father.  And, oh, yes, for some readers it was the card that young Lulu made for her mother's birthday. "I don't want this," Chua announced, adding that she expected to receive a drawing that Lulu had "put some thought and effort into." Throwing the card back at her daughter, she told her, "I deserve better than this. So I reject this."

Even before Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Chua's proudly politically incorrect account of raising her children "the Chinese way," arrived in bookstores Jan. 11, her parenting methods were the incredulous, indignant talk of every playground, supermarket and coffee shop. A prepublication excerpt in the Wall Street Journal (titled "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior") started the ferocious buzz; the online version has been read more than 1 million times and attracted more than 7,000 comments so far. When Chua appeared Jan. 11 on the Today show, the usually sunny host Meredith Vieira could hardly contain her contempt as she read aloud a sample of viewer comments: "She's a monster"; "The way she raised her kids is outrageous"; "Where is the love, the acceptance?"

So there ya have it...Pretty harsh stuff huh??  I had completely forgotten about this moment from Saturday night until I ran across this beautiful blog entry written by a bereaved mother who lost her son to cancer at the young age of 3.  READ IT...you won't regret it nor will you forget it!  And while you are there check out the wonderful organization her family started in their son's honor - Ben Towne Foundation.