Parenting thesis statement

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An Examination of Chinese Parenting versus Western Parenting Comment by Taniya Hossain: Great title! Be sure to include a separate, formal title page on your final draft. Your title page should include (in this order): Title of Paper Your NameCourse/NumberDateInstructor Name

Is Chinese parenting superior to Western parenting? According to Amy Chua’s article “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior,” Chinese parenting is superior to Western parenting. Her approach to successful parenting is enforcing extreme academic excellence above all things and zero tolerance of failure. On the other hand, in Hanna Rosin’s article “Mother Inferior,” Western parenting is not inferior to Chinese parenting. Her approach to successful parenting is to respect children’s individuality, encourage them to pursue their passions, and provide them with a nurturing environment. There are many different methods of parenting, and every good parent ultimately wants the best for their children, regardless of cultural background. Every culture is unique in its own way. While there are distinct differences between both parenting styles, one should not draw a conclusion as to which style is superior or inferior. Parenting is very personal and, therefore, should not be measured by whether methods are superior or inferior. Regardless of what parenting method we use, there is no guarantee children with succeed or stray. Comment by Taniya Hossain: Excellent work—your tone is unbiased. You have clearly set up both authors. But what claim can you make about parenting that is based on the comparison?

According to Chua, Chinese mothers have very high expectations for their children, and they accept nothing less than perfect. More importantly, they believe academic achievement reflects happiness and successful parenting and that academic failure reflects poor parenting. They are relentless and spend about 10 times as long every day drilling academic activities on their children. Children are not allowed to participate in extracurricular activities or dictate how they will spend their time. They are expected to study and practice the piano or violin until they are perfect at it; otherwise, they will be punished and shamed. Chua writes, “Chinese parents believe their children owe them everything and must spend the rest of their lives repaying them by obeying them and making them proud.” Chua demands excellence from her daughters, and she insults her daughters if they failed to meet her expectations. She is convinced happiness comes from mastery and that nothing is fun until one is good at it.

According to Hanna Rosin, “success will not make you happy.” “Children have to find happiness themselves,” and “It is better to have a happy, moderately successful child than a miserable high-achiever. She believes academic achievement is due to the child’s own commitment. She allows her children to have extracurricular activities such as watch TV, play video games, play the drums and be in school pay” (Rosin). She argues that Western parents give importance to their children’s self-esteem. In her articles she says, “Left to their own devise, many children of this generation still have giant superegos and a mad drive to succeed” (Rosin).

Unlike Chua; Rosin believes “kids don’t need more drills and rules, they need to lighten up and roam free”. One notable difference between Chinese and Western parenting is that Chinese parenting demands excellence and perfection from their children,; whereas, Western parenting encourages excellence and commitment in everything they do. While Chua’s parenting method does not believe in praising children when they excel at something, Rosin encourages praising children when they do excel. While Chua forbid her daughters from having play dates, sleepovers, attend school plays, watch TV or play computer games, Rosin approved and encouraged her children to go on play dates, sleepovers, attend school plays, watch TV and play computer games. Chua’s parenting method was to dictate everything her daughters did; whereas, Rosin’s parenting method is to allow her children to live their lives by their own choices. Comment by Taniya Hossain: When two independent clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction (think of the acronym FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), a comma must precede the conjunction. FANBOYS are the only words that can join two independent clauses with a comma.A semicolon is used to join two independent clauses or to set apart complex items in a list (in other words, items in a list that contains commas). When you use a transition word—whereas-- between two independent clauses, you need a semicolon before and a comma after.

No one culture holds the secret to successful parenting. Every loving parent wants the best for his or her child, regardless of cultural, social or economic background.

Important to note that Chua’s book is a memoir of her personal journey of motherhood. Her book is not a parenting guide or an attack on Western parenting. In fact, she goes into detail as to how she ultimately had to pull back from her extreme strict parenting style after her thirteen year-old, Lulu, rebelled. Throughout her book, she provides insight into how strict and demanding she was as opposed to Western parents and how she was ultimately faced with having to decide whether to stick to her Chinese parenting convictions or give into the Western parenting style by allowing her daughter to make her own choices. Before ending her book, her daughter asked her what her point was going to be and to what she responded: “I’ve decided to favor a hybrid approach, the best of both worlds. The Chinese way until the child is eighteen, to develop confidence and the value of excellence, then the Western way after that. Every individual has to find their own path”.

Whenever people from different cultures are asked to give an opinion on any given subject, the same will provoke discussions that lead to nothing but controversy. In this case, rather then criticizing and judging each others parenting methods, parents should unite and draw from each other’s experiences. After all, no matter what parenting style you choose, there is no guarantee children with succeed or your stray.

Great start! You have presented each author in an unbiased way. You have used the alternating structure to organize your essay. Your writing is clear. Now work on creating a thesis. You compare the two points of view, but you don’t make a claim about parenting. Instead of saying they can’t see eye to eye, or even that most parents can’t see eye to eye, state what is important. If there is no one way to parent, what should parents rely on to guide them? Culture, instinct, love, discipline? You don’t have to claim you know the perfect parenting style. You only have to claim what can be learned from comparing these two parenting styles.

With each paragraph, you must connect back to your thesis. Your evidence should counter or complicate your central claim. You have a well-structured presentation of details. Now move this from a list to an exploration of parenting.

Make sure you attend to the citation and format requirements for this assignment. From the prompt: “You will want to paraphrase or quote from the texts as appropriate. Don’t worry about citation style for this paper. If you quote from or paraphrase either author, simply put that author’s name in parentheses after the sentence that contains the quotation or paraphrase. (We will work on APA citation in future assignments.)

I have added content to your ComFit Workout center on semicolons and conjunctions. Please complete these before revising.