Education Mama

The diametric opposite of the Open-Minded Parent is the Education Mama, a mother (and it's usually, but not always a mother) who is obsessed with her children's education and pushes them to succeed academically, no matter the cost. She will shell out thousands of dollars to send her kids to private school or move to another town with good schools, and her kids will be forced to surrender their social lives in the pursuit of good grades (Cram School may be involved). And God help her kids if any of them gets anything less than an A or A Degree in Useless. If her kids still have some free time after studying enough to get perfect grades, then she will also force them to master a musical instrument (almost always the violin), and then keep tacking on more extracurricular activities until there is no free time left. Of course, this is all to make her kids seem more impressive to the Dean of Admissions at whatever Ivy League university she has picked out for them. While it is a problem in many countries around the world, this trope is especially pervasive in East Asian families, due to the existence of the Imperial examination, a standardized test you could take in China that was absolutely necessary for a position as an Obstructive Bureaucrat, one of the cushiest, most respected and most well-paying jobs then available. (The topic of the test was the writings of and about the great philosopher Confucius, meaning that theoretically anyone who could read had a shot at a government job. Needless to say, competition is fierce.) Many of the other nations in China's cultural shadow adopted this system, giving rise to the stereotype that all Asian parents are like this. Such parents have been given the name "Tiger Moms" (Traditional: 虎媽, Simplified: 虎妈, Pinyin: hǔmā) in Chinese, and specifically kyoiku mama (教育ママ) in Japanese. With the increase in migration, this trope takes on a whole new meaning in migrant diaspora - a fear of their children being locked out from opportunities. The term "Tiger Mom" was coined by Yale law professor Amy Chua in her book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and despite it only being used by Chinese people at first, it has spread widely throughout the Anglosphere and is used by many non-Chinese women to describe themselves, being the most common term to describe academically-driven mothers in Australia. Variants include Stage Mom, the performing-arts-focused sister of this trope, and Sports Dad, its sports-oriented brother. Often overlaps with the Fantasy-Forbidding Father, in that the Education Mama will try to stamp out any of her child's non-academic interests or different professional aspirations than what she's planned. Contrast: Parental Abandonment, Open-Minded Parent. Compare Jewish Mother and My Beloved Smother. Can turn your child into a "Well Done, Son" Guy if all goes according to plan. If it goes pear-shaped, it can lead to a You Are Grounded! moment, or worse still, teen angst or teen rebellion. In the worst cases, particularly in East Asia, the end result is attempted suicide, running away from home, becoming a hikikomori or some other variety of The Shut-In or even snapping out and committing violence against the parents.