From Katy Perry’s sexy Sesame Street appearance to major baby product recalls and cyber bullying cases, these are the controversial parenting stories that got our readers talking
Bullying Crisis
- Two tragic high-profile teen suicides brought bullying and cyber bullying to forefront this year. In January, 15-year-old Phoebe Prince committed suicide after enduring months of torment at her Massachusetts high school and online. Months later, Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi jumped to his death from a bridge after a roommate secretly taped and streamed video of Clementi having sex with a man in his dorm room.
- Their untimely deaths shed light on the disturbing trend of bullying and teen suicide, and have resulted in increased awareness among parents and stricter anti-bullying laws in many states.
- Yale law professor and mother of two Amy Chua made headlines after her polarizing views on the virtues of Chinese parenting appeared in an article in the Wall Street Journal. The article, excerpted from Chua’s book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, detailed Chua’s strict parenting style—her daughters are not allowed to attend sleepovers, watch TV or play computer games, choose their own extracurricular activities, or not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama. Critics bashed the extreme demands the “Tiger Mom” puts on her children, and took offense to her claim that Chinese parenting is “superior” to Western parenting.
- Parenting Post blogger Denene Millner argued that no specific style of parenting is the right way. Denene’s husband interviews prospective students for Yale, where successful students “are the children of families who parented in all kinds of ways—with too much discipline and not enough, with hugging and with slapping, with encouragement and ridicule, with Helicopter Parent-styled attention and hands-off, Free Range Kids-styled parenting,” she wrote. “None of these kids are better than the other. None of them worse.”
