Dude, on the topic of Amy Chua, a lot of people tend to miss her whole point - every single thing she says in her book is not to be taken at face value. This is a really smart woman who is using a ton of self-deprecating, tongue in cheek humor to sell a lot of books on the topic of how she raised her daughters.
Amy Chua's daughter got into an Ivy League college. Her daughters were not hothoused - they were highly talented, very smart and hardworking kids despite the impression that she gives. Her daughter Sophia loved playing the piano. It is a long shot for a hothoused kid to reach levels where they are invited to play in Carnegie Hall or get accepted to Yale. They "even out" eventually and burn out. Amy Chua simply uses certain stereotypes to reinforce her points - and it is comical and humorous if you look closely (maybe, I should have posted in the Tiger mom thread, instead).
Again, this all goes to how you define "hothousing."
I did not miss out on some of the gallows humor she used, particularly in that anecdote about the piano lesson, because obviously she made a bunch of threats she never intended to carry out (and Lulu called her on it).
But reading between the lines, it's not at all clear that Lulu "loves" the piano, nor the three hours' worth of daily practice it takes up. Furthermore, the ability to play a very difficult piece on the piano at a 7yo's recital would be significantly outside of age-appropriate expectations, so why is she forcing her child to spend so much of her time at it, displacing other activities which are VITAL for healthy child development, when she clearly doesn't want to do it?
What's wrong with developing the skill at the piano to play that piece at age ten?
To me, that's a classic case of hothousing. And if a reading of her complete works leads you to conclude that she's not hothousing, then that tells me that that's what she's thinking, too.
So yeah, she's totally unaware.
Of course, the fact that her child played at Carnegie Hall will be used as a justification, but the
research says tiger moms are mostly devouring their cubs.
