Tiger Mother

As I ate dinner today with my mother, the Chinese channel had some sort of show where they are documenting the special abilities that some kids have. The first one child was no older than 12 (tough to tell with Asians) and he could do a Rubik's Cube quickly. I was disinterested as I've seen various world record Rubik's Cube videos (e.g. with a blindfold, one hand, two cubes at once, etc) but my mother made a quick sound of being impressed; it was definitely a sound of being impressed, but I can't clearly express how I knew.

Then the show moved on to a young stuntman. The stunts looked challenging and I was amazed. My mother seemed to be impressed as well. Then, the show continued to a youngish "doctor". I'm not sure what type of doctor he was.

All the while, I'm eating dinner living while living with my parents. I have no clue what my mother is thinking in that moment, but if she was a true Tiger Mother, she wouldn't be proud. This comes from the son who quit his stable engineering job while they were in China and didn't tell them until they returned. And to do what? Something that won't pay a salary for a while and working on a problem that may not have a realistic solution.

I can only imagine what a true Tiger Mother would be thinking while watching that Chinese show filled with talented children... I'm thankful that my mother wasn't a true Tiger Mother. I would have dreaded that show growing up; imagine a Tiger Mother watching any one of the talent shows that play what seems like every night on television (e.g. America's Got Talent).