There are many different ways to do it when talking about how to raise a child the proper way, there is no simple answer to this; in fact, many different factors are in play when talking about how to raise a child properly. There are usually noticeable differences when seeing parenting of a child by watching another family with a different ethnicity. However, a clear difference between which factors the parents think are the most crucial for a child’s upbringing shows when comparing between two completely dissimilar cultures, in depth within the family walls. The big question is which way of upbringing a child is the most correct way, both ethically and progressively. In this article ‘’Why Chinese Mothers are Superior’’ by Amy Chua, she points out the major differences between the Western and Chinese world of parenting.

In the article, Amy Chua mentions the focus that has been set on Chinese mothers about their inhumane ways of upbringing a child. ‘’There are all these new books out there portraying Asian mothers as scheming, callous, overdriven people indifferent to their kids' true interests’’.
She uses the opportunity in this article to get the western people’s attention by her very provocative title choice, which is smart because it allows her to set things in perspective for the western readers, now that she has their attention. Amy kind of starts a debate by comparing these two different parenting cultures, she tries to explain it from her viewpoint, reducing the bad view on Chinese parenting method and a chance of achieving solidarity. Amy states that there are three major differences between Chinese and Western parental mind-sets. Chinese parents are not anxious about their children’s self-esteem, and does not care that much for their childs psyche, but instead cares about preparing the child for the future, in contrast to western parents who cares almost, only for their childs psyche. Amy points out the difference by comparing a situation involving grades. Seen from a western familys point of view, if their child comes home with an B-plus they would most likely praise their child, and if not, they would definetly be careful not to make their child feel inadequate or insecure. On the other hand, a chinese family would burst out with a hair-tearing explosion of dissapointment, and probably give the child a serious scolding to make the child feel sorry and ashamed . Afterwards they will most likely get to the conclusion that their child must practice for even longer and with hundreds of pratice tests until the grades improve. Chinese parents think that their children owes them everything, the fact that they have sacrificed and done so much for their children, given them food, shelter and just being the foundation of their lives. Therefore they expect that their child is cooperative and following the sets of rules and stay in its boundaries. For chinese parents a succesful upbringing of a child involves good academics in school, so that they are well prepared with a bright future ahead of them, even if they have to take it to it the absolute extreme. In the article we learn about Amy’s personal experience with her own daughter Lulu, which she tries to raise by the chinese norms. Amy wanted her daughter Lulu to learn a piece on the piano called ‘’The Little White Donky’’ which she had put a lot of effort and work into. After a week of nonstop practice Lulu could still not do it, it was very difficult because she had to play two different rythms with each hand. At a point Lulu had given up and stomped off, even though Amy ordered her to get back to the piano, which Lulu refused. Amy then threatened to give her dollhouse away for salvation, and even denying her lunch and dinner. It turned out so extreme, she kept pushing Lulu and made her practice through dinner and into the night, not even allowing her to go to the bathroom or get any water. This is where Amy started to doubt herself and her methods. But then Lulu suddenly started to play it right, bit by bit, and Amy gained her intuition back. Eventhough Lulu was threatened, not allowed food or water and forced to practice through dinner and into the night, she was suprisingly very happy that day, having learned something that she never thought she could, she even snuggled into Amy’s bed at night to cuddle.

This leads to a paradoxical question, is it okay to push a child to the absolute extremes, as Amy did to her daughter Lulu, if the outcome is good? My answer to this is that it can kind of go both ways; let us say that we adopt Amy’s way of upbringing a child. If the child is happy in the end, why worry about the past, but there can be some other factors to worry about by upbringing a child by these methods, for instance, things like social competences.
''Chinese parents spend approximately 10 times as long every day drilling academic activities with their children. By contrast, Western kids are more likely to participate in sports teams.''
As the article reveals, school academics takes up a lot of space in the child’s life, when raised in a Chinese family. Chinese parents have very high expectations from their children, thinking that they must become the best and nothing less. This is why they are putting so much effort in their children, and pushing them to their absolute limits striving for perfection. One might question how the children are supposed to what they really want, their desires and preferences, but that is something that is not be necessary, according to Chinese parents, school and other academics are the absolute priority, and that also explains all the rules, such as sleepovers, playdates, being part of a school play etc. which is not allowed. If the child does not get any social experience throughout the growing years, the outcome could be that the child lacks social competence. The child might have a difficult time reacting to real-time situations, because they have not had any social experiences at all, which is important for their understanding on how to function among people. When comparing a situation like this to a topic like school, the child might end up lonely and depressed, now that socializing with friends in the spare is a very limited thing. This is something that I have seen happened myself, from other Asian families that my family is familiar with, talking about how friends and social life is not important, school is the first priority. I know that particular this family is very strict, and that their child is often not very happy, because of the high expectations, and the fear of failure.