The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Parenting
and child psychology take up most of the self-help book genre, stressing the
point that every parent must develop their own creative and suitable ways to
deal with their child.

Battle
Hymn of the Tiger Mother stands out from its genre contemporaries, as author Amy Chua delves right
into the techniques she used to raise her own genius daughters, who are very
lucky. Why? Because
they’re Chinese! Yes, the author aims at educating the unfortunate rest of the
world on how to raise their kids to be more like the genius race that is the
Chinese.

Chua believes that the Chinese
race is superior because of the mothers’ tough parenting techniques: for
example, the Chinese mother considers an A- grade a bad grade, never
compliments her kids in public, and only allows them to participate in
activities from which they’ll win a trophy or medal; and it must be gold.

The
controversy that this book has caused has been mainly down to how the author
compares the know-it-all ‘Chinese mother’ to the typical good-for-nothing ‘Western
mother’. That being said, the book itself is very captivating, divided into stories
and anecdotes that are both educating and suspenseful, with organized profiles on
her family. Her controversial theory, however, may jar with parents who do not
fall in line with the author’s ideals.

It’s
important to remember that everyone has their own parenting methods. So, if you
come out with just one thing from this book, it may be that if having no social
life, being forced  into hobbies, and
being under constant pressure to score the best grades is what it takes for a
kid to be genius, then perhaps it’s not worth it after all.

It’s easier
to read the book as an autobiography than as a self-help book; that way you can
enjoy the mother’s thoughts on her daughters’ upbringing and the methods that she
used. That way, the book won’t ruffle your feathers or come across as
condescending to those who might be in the firing line of the straight-talking Chua.