Do you think "tiger parenting" is abusive?

I grew up with parents not unlike that. Not to repair ill health but for educational purposes. It was very common for when they were young, it had been practiced by their parents. I do believe it’s abusive. I don’t think that parents who do this think it’s abusive, in their eyes, they are acting with the child’s best interest. Along with that, parents who do this tend to come from a background of this where it is common. My parents were always like this, along with that my father used to beat (which is a different thing). Eventually, they grew out out of it moving out of Hong Kong and to Canada. They continued with this all the way up to my high school, but they had been slowly getting used to Western culture. My sister never got that sort of treatment. My aunts and uncles, who still reside in Hong Kong, continue to do this to my cousins. So I really do believe that they think they are doing what is best for their child, but they don’t realize that it is abusive, and it has a lot to do with the culture you live in and the culture you grew up with.

I agree with the Countess, it’s more to do with the cultural beliefs but to the child expierencing it, may feel abused.

i would argue that those culture that do this to there children have a longer life span as a whole.

I do agree that a lot of parents in the Western culture smother their children TOO much.

i agree with that too but there is a difference letting your child be a child and almost letting them get hypothermia. Or pneumonia. Thats to far i think. I mean let them play in the dirt and roll around in the sand box getting sand everywhere or playing in their diaper in the SUMMER. lol.

Do you think this is abusive or are the parents acting with the child’s best interest at heart?

Those are not mutually exclusive. And it depends on whether or not harm is done. Sometimes parents can be abusive without realizing it.

I don’t believe it is abusive. I feel with cultural differences will place parents on the hand of its abusive where as her family won’t think anything by it. A lot of cultures I feel have grown too soft on children anyways which is why their children walk all over them. A book I read in my psychology class is called “Tiger Mom” and she points out some good points. Here in America we tell people not to call our kids fat and to beat around the bush yet our kids still develop things like bulimia and anorexia a lot more than in other countries whereas in the Chinese culture you can call your child fat and their children would know they meant well by this. I am not saying they don’t have their eating disorders now but they have less situations than we Americans do.