Do Tiger Moms Create Orphan Heart Children?

Online, January 23, 2011 (Newswire.com) - I too hadn't planned to write on the recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Amy Chua, "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior" (an excerpt from her book The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother), but red flags kept waving in front of my minds eyes the more I read about it. I am concerned more about the influence this type of parenting has on the emotional child within. Many of us in healing professions and ministries have to deal with the results these word curses produce in the adulthood of these children, such as 'you are garbage.' Children need to feel loved, lovable, and receive affirmation from their parents that they are loved. Not receive affirmation only when the child has excelled to be the best. According to Amy Chua in the Wall Street Journal article, the solution to substandard performance is always to excoriate, punish, and shame the child. Does this suggest that a child must perform to excellence in order to receive love? It concerns me that tiger moms may create an orphan heart condition in their children. A child with an orphan heart condition feels unloved, unlovable, unaffirmed, and must become a perfectionist in order to receive the love and respect of the parents and society. This whole topic has been well covered by people such as Conrad W. Baars, MD "Healing the Unaffirmed" and from the Christian perspective in the writings of Mark Stibbe, Leif Hetland, Jack Frost, Jack Winter, Donna J. Kazenske, Judith MacNutt , Dennis and Matthew Linn, James Jordan, Robert Holmes, Pastor Harold Martin, Pastor Dave Toyne, and in other source materials. Most recently, the book My Father, My Son, Healing the Orphan Heart with the Father's Love covers in detail the history, the conditions, and how to heal an orphan heart.

I realize that Amy Chua's book is a collection of memoirs; however, it would be beneficial if surveys were available of the following:

1. Do children of tiger moms feel loved and lovable
2. What is the suicide rate of children of tiger moms during childhood and adulthood.
3. What are the long term emotional and psychological effects on the child who has been raised under a tiger mom.

This book has created a controversy that has raised highly expressive words and emotional reactions everywhere. Maybe this all will help bring awareness to the orphan heart condition and ways to prevent or heal it.