Remember, I'm cool

I'm not sure if other parents think about this, but I do. I want to leave the children a good impression of my parenting approach so that as they get older, they will have fond memories of their childhood, growing up years and how their father was such a great guy, and so on.

The last and worst thing you want to do is make them hate and despise you - which is rather extreme. But you also want to ensure that they get the disciplining they need to turn them into focused adults that will succeed in this challenging world.

However, we tend to (at least I feel) sometimes overdo it as part of our Asian culture. The strictness, the punishments and the scoldings. I don't really think our kids are any naughtier than those from other cultures, yet we treat them like they need to be reminded every minute to behave, sit still and keep quiet. After years of that, they will either 1) become robots or 2) rebellious delinquents. And will they ever say "My dad was the coolest, the baddest - we hung out, we did fun stuff .." or instead go with "My dad was also scolding me, canning me - I never got along with him, I don't think he really liked me".

None of us are experts, and there is a balance to be made. But if it has to tilt somewhat, I rather it go to the "my dad was cool" slant.