Some Thoughts Regarding Ben and Amy and Coco

29 Mar 2011 2 Comments

by spanishjenna in Tiger Mother

As I’m raising an infant, I often wonder how Amy Chua raised her infants.  Did she Chinese-parent them?  And how do you do that?  Isaac had his worst sleeping day EVER today (just the day part) and we had to have a showdown around 4 pm.  He needed sleep.  I needed him to sleep.  He didn’t want to sleep.  I proved to have the stronger will and he slept.  We were all better for it which I’m sure he learned.  I need sleep now just having to think about it.

I read the Coco the dog part just now and I had to laugh about how Amy Chua wanted her dog to be a violin virtuoso too (–well–you know what I mean).  I remember Eliana once saying something about Cole finally being smarter than the dog because he could turn on a faucet–or something like that.  I kind of feel that way about Isaac.  He isn’t much smarter than the cat, and in fact, is dumber than the cat in many ways.  But Ben thinks he’s trainable, like the cat (or Coco).  He kind of is but he’s kind of not, too.  He knows the routine for when I take a shower and get ready (he has to sit on the bathroom floor and listen to me sing “Little Bunny Foo-Foo” and “Old McDonald” a hundred times), he knows the routine for a diaper change (he lays in his room by his crib for an undefined period of time), he knows the routine for dishes (he sits in his high chair and gets splashed with water occasionally) but he doesn’t learn very quickly about things we don’t do over and over and over and over and over again.  In fact he doesn’t really learn unless it’s repeated often or unless he’s highly motivated.  Ben doesn’t understand this.  Ben has been reading about it just like Amy Chua would.  In fact, Ben’s parenting instinct/wisdom comes from books and the Internet.  Mine comes from experience.  It’s hard to argue with either of those and sometimes we just have to agree to disagree  (which means that I win because I’m the care-giver!)

Well, these ideas sounded articulate in my mind.  Maybe it’s the hour and the parenting day, I don’t know.

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