Obviously, I'm doing it wrong. Whenever I issue an order, my kids roll their eyes and tell me to take "a chillaxative."

At the end of our journey, when we look back, the currency of achievement will no longer buy us solace. The greater accomplishment will be to over the years have built a foundation of family, friendship, altruism, kindness, compassion and love.

Giving our children freedom doesn't inevitably lead to failure, nor does it inevitably lead to abduction. We can still set our children down the right path, but first, we must unleash them.

The notion of encouraging kids to push past easy doesn't bother me. Nor do I think we harm them by requiring them to do things they don't feel like doing. But I do maintain that parents should motivate their kids to stretch a little.

At the same time American parents have been engaged in animated debate about traditional Asian parenting, parents in Taiwan are about to be exposed to an American-born concept.

Neither too involved nor too uninterested parents have any interest at all in the inner life of their children -- their hopes, desires, dreams. And without nourishing those aspects, we starve them of everything from imagination to hope.

In our "please give me the secret to perfect parenting" culture, if one mother is viewed as having a magic wand that will turning her child into a prodigy with Harvard potential, there is sure to be a substantial audience.

In a culture of parenting that is sorely lacking that kind of conviction, I think all parents can learn a few things about raising their children from this Tiger Mom.

I thought this week I would put my head in the lion's mouth -- or more accurately, into the tiger's mouth -- and add my voice to the chorus of cheers and jeers directed toward the Tiger Mother.

Sadness is predicted to peak on the third Monday of each new year. This is usually a result of post-holiday blues/failed new year's resolutions/bad weather and the like. Some even refer to it as Blue Monday.

Chua's story both mesmerized and appalled me. Reading it is like driving past a horrific car accident and wondering whether anyone survived.

What is the most important in our parenting? What do we want for children? Is it success? Is it happiness? Is it something else?

Where does Chua's book address the ethical self? How is she teaching her children to deal with other people? Have we missed something vital in defining success in child rearing?

Long after we've grown and left home, we continue, in a sense, to act as our own moms and dads, urging on as we strive to meet our goals. How we talk to ourselves really does matter.