Parenting Style Vs Self-esteem- Part 1

When I get this topic- parenting style as my writing assignment, I’m quite shocked with it. I was thinking that how can parents affect our self-esteem? It should depend on ourselves- how we see we are and what we think we are. However, after I read the article entitled “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior,” I strongly agree that different types of parenting style will actually affect the children’s self-esteem. As the saying goes, “Everyone needs self-esteem, but it doesn’t always come naturally.” Then, after I have computed the self-esteem test’s scores, I’m really got so surprised with the scores. I get 26 over 30 for that test! Should I feel happy with that? Although they have said that the higher the score, the higher the self-esteem, but for me, it seems something wrong to myself. I personally knew that I have a very high self-esteem, and sometimes may overconfident, but I really never think of the high score that I’ve got. Well, I think my parents; especially my mother had affected my self-esteem a lot.

Yes, I believed that my mother is a Chinese mother, but not as strict as the Amy Chua, the author of “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior.” My mother did one of those things that Amy never allowed her daughter to do which is to attend a sleepover. I remembered that I have told her once that I want to have a sleepover at my friend’s house; she said with a very serious and fierce tone, “You have your own house, your own room, you do not know their family background, and remembered that you are a girl, how dare you want to sleepover?” This dialogue has made me know that I could never attend a sleepover because I’m a girl and of course I knew she was worried about my safety. Therefore, from that day on, I never request or ask for it, even though it was just a camp. Anyway, this thing has indirectly shaped and built my self-esteem as she made me know that as a girl, I should have greater self-esteem compared to boy, I should know how valuable and important I am. However, when I’m Form 4, she was not that strict as before. She started to allow me to attend a 2D1N trip and camp, but with the self-esteem, I know what should I do and I shouldn’t especially under the peer pressure. I’m glad with that.

-To be continued-