Co-written by Sahiti Gellala and Meghna Kamath
Good grades, good behavior, being the top in everything and getting married early.... these are just examples of expectations Asian parents generally have for their children. To make them live up to those, they push their kids to their limits to achieve and do something that these children might not personally want.
For example, telling them to get a perfect GPA, get into an Ivy League college and get a degree in engineering or go to med school to become a doctor.
1. "You must get a 100 like that smart kid in your class!"
Asian parent's love to boast about their kids to others. Thus, it results in the kids being continuously prodded towards their books to make sure they get the best grades in their whole class. If they don't get at least an A, they're a disappointment to the family.
2. "Don’t go outside alone, or someone’s going to kidnap you."
Parents prefer their kids to go out in groups to not get kidnapped by some stranger. They always list what not to do when a stranger comes up before letting their children go out. Over-protectiveness at its finest. They also tend to go a bit over board with warning their kids what might happen if a stranger kidnaps them. Just to clear things up and put them on their guard.
3. "Just get a good job."
Asian parents always want their kids to be successful but only with the help of certain professions they approve of. Becoming a doctor or an engineer are the two top professions they usually want for their kids. Again, they have high hopes and expectations for their kids and do not like to be disobeyed.
4. "You have to set example for your cousins."
Asian parents love to tell all their family and friends that their children were the best at everything and are the poster children for "perfection". To encourage them, they say something like this,"Everyone should look up to you as they did to me when I was your age."
5. "You have to become a *insert profession*."
Some parents want their children to achieve what they couldn't. So, they pressurize them into studying what they wanted to so as to continue their "legacy" instead of letting their children pursue whatever they wanted. They say something like this, "It was my dream for a long time, but the circumstances that I was living in didn't allow me to do it. But you can with my full support." Usually, all their dream jobs were either doctor or engineer.
6. "Just get into a good college and graduate with a good degree."
Asian parents are known to be hard on their kids, to push them towards success. Their main emphasis is on education. They're always like "Entertainment and friends can wait. Get good grades, a degree and a job and then you can do whatever you want."
7. "Just get married, and then you can do what you want."
Like getting a good job, getting married is very important to Asians. It's mainly to join families and have children as soon as they can to continue the family line.
8. "Just have a child, and then you can do what you want."
Some reasons Asians want their kids to have children are a way to assure marriages and continue the family line.They don't care if you don't want kids yet, they'll continue to ask you when you're planning to have them.
9. "Why are you spending your summer time lazing around?"
Again, Asian parents want you to study so much that even summer isn't spared. While other kids use summer to hangout with their friends and go to Florida for vacation, Asian kids have to go to tutoring to learn next year's curriculum so that they can be top of their class.
10. "Do you have a fever? Drink this herbal tea."
Even having the slightest cold or a temperature, Asian kids' parents will go into full panic mode and make you drink herbal teas or make some natural remedy for them with ingredients you never heard of.
11. "Where are you going without a jacket? It’s 60 degrees outside!"
Exaggeration and over-protectiveness is a common trait among Asian parents. For example, even the most normal temperature, like 60 degrees Fahrenheit, will seem cold to them and they won't let you out without a jacket on.
12. "Only this much food? Oh God, you’re getting really thin."
Even though you don't look like a stick and look healthy enough, Asian parents will fuss over you, claiming you're too thin. They fill up your plate and make you eat everything so that you don't "faint" anywhere.
13. "You still have so much food on your plate!"
Parents like to guilt their children into eating everything on their food and not waste it. For example, they claim they are fortunate enough to afford the food while many others around the world can't.
14. "You’re going out? When? Where? With who?"
Over-protectiveness is quite common among Asians. When Asian kids just want to go out somewhere with their friends, questions pop up continuously from their parents asking every bit of information about where, with who, what they're going to do, and where their friends live.
15. "It’s 12 P.M! Wake up!!"
Discipline is a very important aspect of living in many Asian families. Taking a bath in the afternoon, eating 2 hours after you're supposed to, and waking up late are just some things they disapprove of.
