Parenting Musings and Asparagus Appreciation

I think we reached our five-year blogiversary. Wow--lots and lots has changed, including the initial goal of this blog, which was to get a baby. Then, to get another baby. And so here we are, not just a couple of married lesbos ttcing, but parenting.

Speaking of parenting, S.'s book club read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua this month. Holy crap--has anyone read this book? If not, it's a quick and fascinating read. For those of you haven't heard about it, it is basically an autobiography of how a woman of Chinese descent parented (and still parents) her two daughters--in the Chinese way. It's not so much a criticism of Western parenting, but some of the struggles, pitfalls, and successes she encounters as she raises her two daughters to be musical prodigies and straight A students -- all the while hovering, demanding, pushing them. We're talking forcing them to practice their music 5+ hours a day, screaming at them when they play things wrong, not accepting a hand-drawn card from her four-year-old that she deemed unacceptable--extreme.

And yet, I did not find myself hating her. Since she actually becomes reflective of her parenting style by the end of the book, I feel like perhaps she learned a thing or two from her kids along the way. While you can't argue with the results of these two girls, it still all left me wondering--why? So what if your child is a piano prodigy? So what if they get straight As? I suppose Amy Chua would call me very Western for considering such philosophical questions, but it made me think about my own kids and what I want for them versus what they may someday want for themselves.

Anywho--this spring has seriously sucked so far. May 6th and we've had only a handful of warm days. But our gardens are starting to be planted, the grass has been mowed, and we finally put the snowblower to bed until next winter. And---it's asparagus season. Yumyumyumyumyummy.