Yale Law School professor Amy Chua rose to fame in 2011 when she released her controversial memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, which argued Asian American parents raise superior children.
In the talked-about book, Chua wrote that her daughters were never allowed to attend a sleepover, have a playdate, be in a school play, watch TV, play computer games or choose their own extracurricular activities. In addition they were expected to be the No. 1 students in every subject, except gym and drama
Five years later, Chua, a.k.a. “Tiger Mom,” is back in the spotlight. On June 10, the academic penned an essay for The Wall Street Journal about the legal document she drafted when her daughters Sophia, 23, and Lulu, 20, moved home rent-free for the summer.
In order to stay at their parents’ Manhattan pied-à-terre, some of the conditions Sophia and Lulu had to agree with included:
• To greet parents Jed Rubenfeld and Amy Chua with spontaneous joy and gratitude whenever they visit.
• To make their joint bed every day, and not to fight about who does it.
• To never, ever use the phrase “Relax—it’s not a big deal.”
• To always leave all internal doors in the apartment wide open whenever Jed, Amy or any company whatsoever (including relatives) are in the apartment, with an immaculately made bed in full view and no clothing or other junk on the floor of the bedroom in sight.
• And, whenever any guests visit, to come out of the bedroom immediately in a respectable state, greet the guests with enthusiasm, and sit and converse with the guests in the living room for at least 15 minutes.
The contract also states that the girls “will not be excused even in the event of illness, hangovers, migraines, work crises or mental breakdowns (whether their own or their friends’),” and that if they violate any of the conditions, Chua and her husband “have the right to get the superintendent or a doorman to restrain them from entering the apartment; and to change the locks.”
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