But a tiger IS my favorite large cat

Good thing my New Year's resolution wasn't to blog more often, eh? So glad that January is almost over and we can all quit talking about how we're trying to better ourselves and just settle back into our same old sad sack patterns.

Anyhoo. This Tiger Mother crap is everywhere, huh? Or is it just the people I associate with with whom I associate? I've only read the Wall Street Journal excerpt, but I suppose I'll download the book to my Kindle - which I've had for over two years but just started using. Boy was it top of the line and expensive! Perfect for a 30th birthday present. Now I just covet the new one. Consumerism at its finest! But I digress.

We were just talking about this (parenting?) last night, how one of our friends had a creative solution to her kids' messy playroom that was on the one hand perfect, hysterical and just what those kids deserved. On the other: kind of a temper tantrum. The yelling and screaming over piano practice described in that WSJ piece seems like a temper tantrum. Kind of like how another mother I know used to break the toys that weren't put away when a certain little girl's room wasn't clean. I don't like the idea of fear as motivator. I don't like the idea of parental rage as a consequence. Maybe I'm idealistic and naive and new to this parenting game and whatnot, but I would like to minimize the temper tantrums on my end. But, who am I to say? Marlo has yet to willfully disobey me.