Kids raised to be pampered and spoiled don't really end up being good leaders. Leaders need to be independent minded and confident.

The Chinese model calls for giving your kids very little choice - and I've come to see that you can go too far with that. On the other hand, I also believe that Western parents sometimes give their young kids too much choice.

When I'm not the Tiger Mom, I'm a professor at Yale Law School, and if one thing is clear to me from years of teaching, it's that there are many ways to produce fabulous kids. I have amazing students; some of them have strict parents, others have lenient parents, and many come from family situations that defy easy description.

All decent parents want to do what's best for their children. The Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that.

The truth is I'm not good at enjoying life.

I do think that maybe, even subconsciously, a lot of parents in the West are wondering, have we gone too far in the direction of coddling and protecting - you know, you see kids, sometimes that seem very rude and disrespectful. And the more important thing is they don't seem that happy.

Questioning authority is, I think, a great thing to instill in children. I just didn't have enough of that when I was little.