Tiger Mom Bored Game: "The family that plays together . . ."

Amy Chua

(Image from Wikipedia)

Over the past couple of days since I used a post about "Amy Chua on 'Educating' Children . . ." to offer my response to Ms. Chua's method of raising her kids, my family and I have been playing the 'Tiger Mom' game to liven things up whenever we feel that somebody needs a bit of motivating. For instance:

My 11-year-old son, En-Uk, feeling already filled up on rice at lunch yesterday even though he hadn't eaten more than a spoonful or two, announced: "I'm full."

I motivated him to try some more: "Eat all your rice, you piece of trash!"

My wife, sensing that I had gone too far, yelled, "Don't call him trash, you worthless garbage!"

Against that uncalled-for slur, my 14-year-old daughter, Sa-Rah, defended me: "Don't call Daddy worthless, you disgraceful mother!"

I couldn't permit one of my children to insult my wife, so I screamed, "You stupid girl! How dare you insult Mama! Apologize to your disgraceful mother!"

En-Uk, not missing his own opportunity to motivate, roared, "You're all stupid, worthless, disgraceful shreds of trashy garbage!"

"En-Uk!" I admonished. "What you say is partly correct! But listen, you piece of trash, don't talk that way to me and your disgraceful mother! And that goes for you, too, Sa-Rah, you stupid girl! You both must respect us now and take care of us someday in our old age, just as we are taking care of you!"

They both promised to do so, with all the kindness of their filial little calculating hearts . . .