It's easy to become a parent, but extremely challenging to be a qualified and successful one. When Len and I started raising our son, Eli, we were clueless about the business of parenting. Learning on the job has made us veterans, and our experiences educated all three of us.That was quite a challenge, and it's also quite a job now to tell the story, a story about how we brought up Eli, helping him grow from an infant into an intelligent and mature young man, helping him grow both "roots" and "wings" in an interracial family. I am an amateur writer just as I was an amateur parent, eagerly searching memories, e-mails, and records long forgotten until now. But it's been fun to do because the project has been a happy one. The project may throw some light on what it takes to raise a child. I'll focus on the interaction leading to important decisions concerning early childhood challenges, music and sports, religious education, high school, college and graduate school, career and marriage. And the most important lesson Len and I learned in our joint venture: we tried to offer advice and support rather than commands and criticism. Our goal was two-way communication. In this dynamic of "East meets West" did I overdo my part, my influence, and come on too strong as a Chinese mom? And what was Len's role as a Jewish father? The reader must judge.
About the Author: Shaoping Moss was a college teacher of English in China in the 1980s. She met Leonard Moss, a Fulbright scholar, in Beijing and after winning a bitter fight against the Chinese bureaucracy they married and moved to the United States. She and Leonard co-authored a book, China Was Paradise! China Was Hell! about their experiences in China. Later she attended the library school at Simmons College and became an academic librarian, working at three small library arts colleges with a brief stint at the UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies library. After leaving the workplace she started a new career in writing. Recently she has written an article, "Management Microaggression at the Workplace," describing the unfair treatment she encountered at the workplace in America. She has also written an article, "How to Be a Parent," in which she talks about the dynamics of "East meet West" in bringing up a child. Now she lives with her husband and two Siamese cats, Nini and Will, in Rossmoor, an active senior community, in Walnut Creek, California Her articles and books can be downloaded or viewed at the Moss Family Publications website: http: //mossfamily publications.weebly.com/ She can be reached via email at swumoss@gmail.com