Japanese Monster parents

It is the thing all teachers fear in Japan... no it is not budget cuts, its the dreaded monster parents. In Japan, like other countries in Asia parents can be overbearing when it comes to education. If you talk to any of my students and ask their schedule, you would be shocked to hear how busy they are. On average they attend school from 8-3 followed by joining some school sport and then head to cram school which ends around 10.

By the time children become adults they are lacking childhood experiences. Thus, parents try their best to make sure their kids get everything they want. Thus, we get monster parents. I have only had a couple of run-ins with such parents but let me tell you... the run-ins are not pretty. There was a story I read about a whole group of monster parents at one school. The school was doing a play of Snow White... In America, we usually only choose one person to play the role of Snow White. Yet, in Japan a majority of parents got angry at the school board when they had discovered their daughters had not been chosen to play Snow White. Thus, they argued with the school board and won. Thus, the play ended up having 15 Snow Whites...


This might sound like a stupid story but it happens quite often. I personally had this happen to me a week ago. A week ago I had to do a trial lesson with a mother who is very demanding. She actually makes a plan for the teacher to teach and you have to teach it to her liking. I knew coming in that she was a difficult mother to please but I had listened to previous teachers and got their opinions prior to teaching this student.

The lesson was a complete failure. For starters, the mother had her one year old toddler with her while she was watching the class. The child was screaming at the top of his lungs and was spilling food everywhere. Moreover, she was eating dinner while she was watching class. Soon after class, she gave me her two cents. She slated that I was a good teacher and had good pace but she was angry that I did not show her son the words for some of the vocabulary words I had taught him. Being the smart ass I am said " Your son is only three and he can`t distinguish the difference between A and B, do you think he can actually read full sentences? " This was a shocker to her and to my boss who was standing next to me but to my surprise my boss took my side.

In the end, I feel that if you are a parent and you want your children to succeed in life. Do not give them everything they want. Some kids need to be taught a lesson in failure and that they cannot get everything they want in life... Otherwise, they will learn the hard way when they reach adulthood and get declined....