Asian Tigers

I don't mean the 4 dragons of Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore. Anyway, the landscape has changed so much that the term doesn't apply anymore, does it?

I was out bowling with Stacey yesterday and an Ang Moh Family caught my attention. It was a family of 6, 3 young kids who could morph into an irritating rascal, 1 toddler to be carried and the parents. And then there was a helper from either the Philippines or the Indones

ia.

The family occupied 2 lanes and 6 bowled, the helper substituting the toddler and it was a joy to see the young kids jumping in jubilation and enthusiasm as they down a pin (the bumper lane definitely helped, and who cares if they bowl using the grandmother method). I could smile at the sight although I was at the same time, getting thrashed by Stacey.

Cutting my loss, we ended our mini-competition after 3 games and I suggested that we stay on to watch the Ang Mohs enjoying some family time. And then on the lane to their left, there was also a Singaporean family, just the parents and a young daughter, at most 5 years old, Mummy was holding a camera while Daddy was teaching Little Girl the techniques.

From the first frame however, we knew that it was a nightmare in the making: Little Girl used only 1 hand and the ball ended in the gutter even before it went 1/5 down the lane. Credits to Little Girl, she maintained her enthusiasm and tried and tried again.

Mummy would occasionally coach her in a non-professional way, or at her pleasure made Little Girl pose for photographs (while holding the ball that probably weighed a large part of her weight). The only thing consistent was where the ball would end up.

I wonder why they didn't use the bumper lane.

Eventually Little Girl got frustrated as Mummy's method didn't work. She was tired and the score remained "zero". Little Girl talked back, started crying and the next thing I knew, Mummy slapped Little Girl, not very hard but anyone could tell that it was not a playful pat. Little Girl cried louder, Daddy, who was non-chalent all these while went up but backed down again when Mummy told him off.

Amazingly, the Ang Mohs topped this outing with a family photo, happy kids, proud parents, the contrast couldn't be more stark. I took a picture to remind myself what I saw.

Little Girl knew that resistance was futile and stopped crying, Mummy brought Little Girl to the washroom and it could be my imagination but I saw finger marks on Little Girl's rosy cheeks. Daddy loitered around, I wondered what he was thinking, hopefully not sex which scientists said would have crossed a man's mind every 10 sec.

I regret that I did not use the opportunity to go up to tell Daddy that this wasn't the way to train your dream bowling champion. Come on, just let her enjoy the game, use bumper lane silly.

And I noticed the swimming equipment too. I wonder what Little Girl's Saturday schedule was like? Maybe swimming, bowling, dancing and then chinese tuition?

Join me to stop Tiger Mums, or Tiger Dads for that matter, be courageous and give advice to these Tigers in an appropriate way. I mean what is there to lose, I may lose face when the Tigers snub me or scold me instead but at least, I know I have tried to rescue the self-esteem of our young children.