Battle hymn of the horse mom

Amy Chua's book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom touched a raw nerve in the US with its indictment of American parenting practices and praise of stricter-than-thou Chinese parenting practices. 

The extraordinary response to Chua's book got me, like the rest of the world, thinking about what kind of mom I am. I know I'm not a tiger mom. I believe in tough love, but piano practice stops after fifteen minutes in our house, not six hours! I'm not aggressive enough to be a wolf mom, or timid enough to be a mouse mom, or big enough to be an elephant mom, or fragile enough to be a deer mom, or blind enough to be a bat mom. 

After sifting through many kinds of moms that I am not, I finally realized the sort of mom I strive to be: a horse mom. The kind of mom who keeps going steadily, who's reliable, strong, gentle, and sympathetic. The kind of mom who sees what's happening all around her, who is sometimes graceful, sometimes stubborn. And sometimes scared.

This horse mom believes in:

playdates 

sleepovers 

parks

toys

free, unstructured play

school plays

movies

a LITTLE television

homework-free-schools

hard work

persistence

tough love

nurturing self-confidence

nurturing self-esteem

learning second languages

respecting other cultures

freedom of choice

What kind of mom are you? And what do you believe in as a mom?

This post is participating in 5 Minutes for Mom's Tackle it Tuesday.