Personal Essay: An Authoritarian Parenting

I did not want her to end up like one of those weird Asian automatons who feel so much pressure from their parents that they kill themselves after coming in second on the national civil service exam. I wanted her to be well rounded and to have hobbies and activities. Not just any activity, like “crafts,” which can lead nowhere or even worse, playing the drums, which leads to drugs but rather a hobby that was meaningful and highly difficult with the potential for depth and virtuosity. (8-9)
This passage makes me feel uneasy because the author contradicts herself. She claims that she does not want her children to be mechanized and place too much emphasis on academic performance, but she wants her children to have a hobby that has depth and virtuosity. Her plan implies that she has projected her regrets in life onto her children and their options have been limited since the beginning. At the same time, the author believes that crafts will lead nowhere and playing the drums may lead to drugs, revealing her disdain for people engaging in this field and the modern popular culture. Yet, there is no doubt that crafts and playing the drums lead to fewer career options, and
In previous chapters, the author described the authoritarian parenting style of her parents and that she was demanded obedience at all time, but when she disobeyed her father’s decision and applied to another university instead, her father felt proud of her. This is probably because Harvard is a famous university and that the result enhanced their family honour, but her father’s changing attitude proves that he only considers the outcome of an action when indeed he was the biggest resistance to the author going to Harvard. The author seems to adopt the same parenting style and again demands obedience from her daughters which contradicts her method to success. Her daughters would probably be relatively successful by taking the common