Doing Nothing Is Nothing, And Doing Nothing Is Nothing By Amy Chua

Decent Essays
Do you remember how you were brought up? Were your parents strict or more lenient with you? Everybody’s upbringing is different, but in all cases, there seems to be one similarity: extracurricular activities. In “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” written by Amy Chua, and “Doing Nothing Is Something” by Anna Quindlen, both discuss the topic of extracurricular activities. However, while both may discuss this topic, Chua focuses more on the rewards from these activities while Quindlen focuses more on how society uses them to “keep their children out of trouble.” Both articles hold great examples of how to parent a child, but the topic of discussion is exceedingly different, where Chua discusses children’s self –esteem and Quindlen discusses …show more content…
Chua believes that this is none of the parents concern, and instead should be focused on providing the child with success and ensuring that for the future of their kids. In her article, she tells that “Western parents try to respect their children’s individuality, encouraging them to pursue their true passions, supporting their choices and providing positive reinforcement and a nurturing environment” (Chua sec. 8 ¶2). She later goes on to state that the Chinese believe the best way to provide protection for their children is to “[prepare] them for the future, letting them see what they’re capable of, and arming them with skills, work habits, and inner confidence that no one can take away” (Chua sec. 8 ¶2). In simpler terms, the Chinese focus more on giving their children the skills they need to succeed later in life, while Western parents tend to focus on the feelings during growing up. Chinese parents are less concerned with the self-esteem of their child because they assume the child already has qualities in them that make it stronger. Chua writes that “[Chinese parents] assume strength, not fragility” when they are dealing with the inner feelings of their children. This is basically saying that these parents believe their child already has the qualities in them to handle whatever emotions throw at them. Western parents, however, are more concerned …show more content…
In the article “Doing Nothing is Something’ written by Anna Quindlen, she explains that kids today are beginning to become overworked and don’t have enough free time to think. Kids are being scheduled to do activities that their caregivers have to schedule time for having a break. Quindlen writes in her article that “parents have arranged to schedule times for unscheduled time” (Quindlen lines 24-25). Basically, in order to obtain free time, parents or caregivers need to schedule time to do so, even if it’s just for half an hour. Also, when we have time in the day devoted to doing nothing, our best thinking is in place as well as the stronger ability to become creative is present. In the article, Quindlen talks about having “ample psychological research suggesting that what we might call ‘doing nothing’ is when human beings actually do their best thinking, and when creativity comes to call” (Quindlen lines 39-42). In simpler terms, psychological research shows that when human beings are bored, their thinking process becomes more intricate and they try to be creative in finding things to occupy their brain and time with. Thus, when people have more free time to think and be bored, their brains actually grow stronger from being able to think, which cannot happen if they have too much scheduled and little time to stop and

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