LuciusM looks back on 2011.

We survived another year of insufferable reality shows, questionable trends, salacious scandals, and watched as some said goodbye to the Oxford comma (never gonna give you up), but what did we learn from 2011?

2011 is going down for me as the most memorable year of my life thus far, and not just because it's the freshest in my mind. No, 2011 was, if nothing, a year of growth for mankind and a year of set backs the likes of which I have never seen, nor wish to see again.

We sat through the elegance of the Royal Wedding, and shook our heads every time a reporter referred to the Kardashians as the Royal Family of America, we fist pumped (whether we are proud to admit it or not) and we watched with heavy hearts as a generation of magic came to an end.

read more...

Karen8899 talks about acceptance and makes a connection.

Possibly you've heard of "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by Amy Chua. This memoir is about the struggles of a second-generation Chinese mother trying to keep her style of parenting alive while caring for her two daughters with it. Her type of parenting involves pushing children harder and harder to make them achieve goals, dubbed "Chinese parenting" by the author. In other words, this practice is shown to be as fierce as a tiger. If you've read it, you'll know how harsh it is for Chua's kids, but also how much they sometimes value it.

My life isn't so different from theirs. My mom takes to this style of parenting too, though a bit less tough. She constantly bickers me to play piano -- a resemblance to Amy Chua -- and if I don't complete the hour, she doesn't let me near the computer or the iPad, which is different from the author because she doesn't allow her daughters near the Internet at all. If I actually happen to get on, she takes the timer and sets it to one hour; when the timer rings, my time is up and I have to leave the Internet. If I disobey her, she will shout at me and try to enforce the punishment of no games for a month.

read more...