And I’d love to see what happens when those precious overachieving children hit majority. I predict Supermom will find fault with their every accomplishment … with their majors, class schedules, fashion choices, hairstyles, retirement account asset allocations (gotta start when you’re young), MCAT/LSAT/GMAT scores … then moving on to career path, choice of peer-reviewed journals, sons-in-law (including excruciating details of family background), grandchildren, grandchildren’s prenatal enrichment, school district, choice of hard-surface flooring, body mass index … “I can’t believe you got a fixed-rate mortgage. Greenspan said ARMs are better! Idiot! Do you want to be a landless peasant?”
Her kids will be faced with an unenviable dilemma: endure her in shared misery, or let her suffer and die alone. (That is, if Supermom doesn’t cut off contact on her own initiative.) Sadly I know dutiful Asian children who’ve made the second choice.
I can hear you saying: “Big deal, that sounds like plenty of overbearing, controlling moms of any ethnicity.” Bingo. There are plenty of exemplars of Asian motherhood, from Guanyin to Empress Dowager Cixi. This is just one particularly dysfunctional example.
