Tiger Mother, Moi?!

I have never considered myself as a tiger mother but some recent events have made me think twice.

Take the semester reports for my two sons for example: Elliot (8, grade 3), got 1 A, 6 Bs and 6 Cs on his report; and Jason (14 soon to be 15, grade 9), got 15 As, 2 Bs and 3 Cs. According to the A-E Scale set by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, in Victoria, "C" means your child's grade is at the expected standard of the relevant stage, "B" means the grade is above the state-wide standard, whilst "A" means the grade is significantly above the state-wide standard.

Not too bad, one might say. But I know my children are capable of achieving better, especially some of Jason's teachers have commented that his efforts "need more attention". Naturally I set a target for both of them to achieve better in the next report, and told the teenager in no uncertain terms that I don't want to see any more Cs. My husband, of Anglo-Saxon heritage, was the first to accuse me of being a tiger mother, he thinks the boys are doing fine and that I should be proud. I am proud but I just knew they could do better!

Then I spoke to my mother yesterday and duly reported what's been happening with her grandsons. She too, told me not to be "too harsh" on the boys, and that "C" is not too bad after all. I could not believe what I was hearing, my mother, who used to tell me off when I got 98 instead of 100, told me not to be "too harsh"! I wasn't being harsh, was I? I merely set a higher goal so that the boys can make improvements, which in my mind is perfectly achievable by their abilities.

I need time to process this, I have always prided myself for breaking that Chinese parenting mould and allowing my children to be children. But now I have been branded as a Tiger Mother! But am I wrong in lifting the bar and setting higher standards? Should I be content with what they've got? In less than three years time the older one will be sitting exams for university entrance, should I not help him maintain focus? or should I let things be so everyone's happy? Am I really a Tiger Mother?

To dye or not to dye ...

That is the question I have been asking myself a lot lately, it has nothing to do with yarn, I am actually referring to my hair. For the last (who knows how many!) few years I have been colouring my hair, not to be trendy or anything but to cover my grey hair. Well, it's really more than that, my hair (the roots, especially at the front) is actually white. There! I said it, my hair is white, I'm getting old!

OK, everyone gets old, sooner or later. I used to think that I would grow old gracefully, and I would not force against nature. But that was when I was really young, in my twenties. But now twenty years on, I'm not so sure. Of course, there are plenty of women who look fabulous with grey/white hair.

There is Dame Judi Dench

And Helen Mirren (another Dame!)

And of course the wonderful Doris Chan

I admire these ladies who feel confident with their grey hair, and I want to be like them. But when it comes to making the decision it's not so easy. First of all, my husband is dead against it. He began to lose his hair in his thirties and I encouraged him to be bold and became bald, he took it head on (pardon the pangs) and never regretted it. But when it comes to my hair he is rather protective, or is it because he doesn't want a wife who looks older than himself? (I haven't asked that question, maybe I will). My boys on the other hand, don't really care, to them I am already old.

There is also the logistic of things to consider: as my natural hair colour is very dark and I've been colouring it dark brown, or chocolate as I like to call it, if I were to stop dying it how would I look? Imagine someone with dark hair and white roots growing out, the image of Mount Fuji springs to mind. As I have been thinking about going grey I started reading up on the subject, there are plenty of them around! But one thing in common in all the articles I read, is that for someone who has been dying their hair for some time the best way to go au naturale with grey hair is to get a pixie cut. Umm, I tried it once in my youth and it's definitely not for my hair type, my hair is really strong and if I had a pixie cut I'd look like a hedgehog, an albino hedgehog at that!

So, the question remains, to dye or not to dye ...

Blog-this

My friend's blog Bits and Pieces just celebrated it's 500th entry, which really puts my dismal attempt to shame. Looking back my blogging career (if indeed it can be called that!) I realised that one of the reasons (or excuses!) that I don't blog very often is because I can't seem to decide whether I want a knitting blog or just a generic one. Which brings on the next question, why do I want a blog? And who reads it anyway? Should I carry on?

I will dwell on that while plotting on the next entry...

The Sloppy Blogger's Review of 2011

If ever there was a 'Sloppy Blogger' award I'd probably won it. Looking at my blogs (after a long absence) I realised that my last entry was almost a year ago when I was looking forward to 2011. Well, I can look back at it now except there's not much record to look back at! So, here's a review of 2011-

Family Achievements:

J.J. - my 14 year old son took the selective high schools exams in June and got offered a place at the most prestigious state school in Melbourne and will be starting year 9 there in February 2012. Here is a picture of the school he worked so hard to get into :-)