Morning radar: Three things we're talking about this morning
Stricter = stronger? Yale Professor Amy Chua says Chinese parents raise more whiz kids than their Western counterparts, and explains why in a new book out tomorrow.
In the Wall Street Journal, Prof. Chua says the Chinese don't coddle their children's self-esteem, they override their young desires and believe their children owe them everything.
She describes forcing her daughter Louisa, then 7, to perfect a piano piece called "The Little White Donkey" -- this involved calling the girl "pathetic" and threatening to give her toys away to the Salvation Army. (It worked, eventually.)
Here's a shortlist of the things her daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do:
• attend a sleepover
• watch TV or play computer games
• get any grade less than an A
• play any instrument other than the piano or violin
She explains: "There are all these new books out there portraying Asian mothers as scheming, callous, overdriven people indifferent to their kids' true interests.
For their part, many Chinese secretly believe that they care more about their children and are willing to sacrifice much more for them than Westerners, who seem perfectly content to let their children turn out badly. I think it's a misunderstanding on both sides. All decent parents want to do what's best for their children. The Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that."
Parents, weigh in: Is a childhood spent toiling a childhood? Share your views in the comment field
He's at it again: No sliced cows this time, but Damien Hirst has dismayed groups for bereaved parents with his diamond encrusted baby skull.
The child was less than two weeks old and died in the Victorian era. The skull was part of a 19th-century pathology collection Mr. Hirst acquired.
Said the artist in a predictably airy artist's statement: "What's the maximum I could do as a celebration against death? When you look at a skull, you think it represents the end, but when you see the end so beautiful, it gives you hope."
Geriatric feline: A British family has discovered their cat Lucy is the oldest in the world after she reached her 39th birthday -- that's 172 in human years.
Lucy's deaf and a bit tubby but still catches mice in the garden.
Because she was passed down, it took a visit from an elderly aunt to reveal that the cat had been around since 1972, beating out Creme Puff from Texas, who had lived for 38 years and three days.
This article alludes that all Chinese parents are the same, they are not.
Some are great, some are demanding and others are hopeless and everything in
between.
Generally though, Chinese parents can teach Canadian born parents an awful lot
about parenting.
What our government needs to do is to address children's fundamental rights
first, that they have a legal presumption of equal parenting, to ensure that
children get to spend equal amounts of time with both parents.
Canada has now a presumption that dads should not be involved, that dads should
only be visitors in children's lives and should just pay and pay and pay and if
they become unemployed or a full time parent, they just be thrown in jail to
ensure that children don't have a father.
Canada is in crisis, our child birth rate is sinking into the negative, and its
immigrant families, who are increasingly producing the babies because they have
honourable concepts that place children first.
Canada needs first, a Legal Presumption of Equal Parenting, a real police for
the judiciary and a reform of family law.
Real Crime Starts in Family Court
It takes a Dead Beat Judge to Create A Dead Beat Dad
Its enough to make you want to puke.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com
Most parents underestimate the learning potential of their child, fail to
provide appropriate stimulation or learning environment while others have
unrealistic expectations and inappropriately load them up with a never ending
list of activities and classes that can result in depression or personality
problems.
Chinese parents generally, have a strong culture of successful parenting that
can set an example to the rest of the world.
Every child learns at their own rate in their own unique way. They learn
differently from mothers, fathers, relatives, anyone and everyone who is
involved in their lives.
Australian's are lucky that they have a legal presumption of equal parenting
that ensures most children get to spend equal amounts of time with both parents
after separation which is when children really need both parents the most to
help them achieve their potential.
Countries like Canada have a "male sharia law" that without specifically saying
so, assumes men are not to be entrusted with equal parenting, that deprives
children of their father who may be the only parent able to parent.
If you a male, and believe in parenting and meet a Canadian, don't move to
Canada as if it ends in divorce, you will be reduced to a visitor in the child's
life and thats only if the mother consents which could include satisfying
endless demands for money that is beyond your resources and your indefinite
incarceration for no other crime than having testicles and being a father.
That's right, Canada where men have no legal rights.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com
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