tiger mother
n. A loving but strict mother who demands from her children obedience, respect, and academic excellence.
Examples
2011
Tommy Koh, ambassador-at-large at Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and chairman of the country's National Heritage Board, has another, far simpler theory. "There is more spontaneity, joy, and warmth in Singapore than we are given credit for," he says…."Most of us have been brought up by tiger mothers, but we have retained our sense of humor and love of life," Koh says.
—Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, “Forget Chewing Gum, Try the Murtabak,” Newsweek, February 14, 2011
2011
Amid all the psychosocial caterwauling these days over the relative merits of tiger mothers and helicopter dads, allow me to make a pitch for the quietly dogged parenting style of the New Caledonian crow.
—Natalie Angier, “Nurturing Nests Lift These Birds to a Higher Perch,” The New York Times, February 01, 2011
2005 (earliest)
I would like to see Oxford and Cambridge turned into graduate universities entirely devoted to research, which at a stroke would cool the ardour of the "tiger mothers" of Holland Park and Hampstead determined to set their three-year-olds on the path to Oxbridge, whatever the human cost.
—J G Ballard, “Now parliament is just another hypermarket,” New Statesman, May 09, 2005
Notes
She had been an unwanted Newark French teacher until her … uncle had a lucky hunch about Fonstein. They were married and, thanks to him, she obtained her closure, she became the tiger wife, the tiger mother, grew into a biological monument and a victorious personality … a figure!
—Saul Bellow, “Rescued Jew tries unusual ways to show gratitude,” The Washington Times, October 04, 1989
Posted: February 15, 2011