I've been called "Tiger Mom" by a few of my friends (in reference to the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua, which I found to be a very good read in case any of you are interested), and I am not offended by it. I don't feel I quite live up to the term, but I am at the moment second-guessing my disciplinary ways with baby K. Although she's mastered her ABCs and can count from one to ten with ease, she has difficulty identifying what the actual numbers are on paper. As a result, M and I have recently started "forcing" baby K to learn her numbers on a daily basis, much to her chagrin. Like a typical toddler who'd rather be doing something else (anything else!), her concentration is not there and she often picks a number randomly without looking, therefore getting it wrong. Our patience wears thin and there are few nights where the lesson does not end in tears. Tonight was no exception (my ears are still ringing from the crying), and we even told her that she is forbidden to watch any more television until she's gotten all her numbers right (if I were a real tiger mom, there'd be no tv-watching in the first place!).
Baby K is not three yet; she knows her alphabet and her colors, her vocabulary is growing each day, she can communicate with us, she can tell you who all the Disney princesses and Sesame Street characters are, she can even spot a Honda Pilot (2011 model) a mile away... so I'm wondering, are we being too hard on her? M didn't think so, but baby K has a stubborn nature about her and I don't want our strict parenting style (which in my defense still pales in comparison to author Amy Chua's) to deter her from learning something. I don't suppose there's a right or wrong answer, but I'm just wondering what other parents out there are doing. Any thoughts?
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