What's so bad about American parents, anyway?

Brigid Schulte:

It wasn't that long ago that American parents were gripped with Tiger Mother anxiety. Did we overpraise our kids in the name of promoting self-esteem? Were we forfeiting an Ivy League future for them if we didn't force them to practice endless hours of violin or rip up birthday cards that weren't perfect? Were we, as Amy Chua said in her best-selling memoir, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," raising children who were "soft" and "entitled?" ¶ Now, though, it's the French who have it figured out. Just like Chua's book, journalist Pamela Druckerman's recently released "Bringing Up Bebe" -- which lauds the "wisdom" of French parents, who love their children but don't live for them the way American parents do -- has hit the bestseller lists. Another new parenting-by-comparison book, "How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm," extols the virtues of the Argentines, who keep Baby up late for special occasions, and the Japanese, who let their kids fight it out. ¶ Such frenzied fascination with foreign parenting raises a question: Are American parents really that bad?

The simple answer is no. Of course we love our children and want what's best for them. Our problem is that we're not sure what, exactly -- in our driven, achievement-oriented country -- is best. Perhaps instead of snapping up the latest foreign fad or obsessing over every international test score ranking, American parents would do well to look no further than a very American ideal: the pursuit of happiness.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 6, 2012 2:02 AM
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