In the latest episode of Channel A‘s My Golden Kids, a Korean mother of three appeared to consult the renowned pediatric psychologist Dr Oh Eun Young.
The mother claimed her oldest daughter, who recently turned 11 years old, “no longer seems to want to communicates with [her]“.
As viewers got to take a closer look at the family’s “regular day” caught on camera, it became evident why the daughter had trouble opening up to her mother. As early as 7AM in the morning, the daughter was up and “studying” already. Her mother and siblings slept outside in the livingroom while she, alone, worked on improving her English.
As the day progressed, the tension between the daughter and her mother only heightened. When the daughter stepped in the shower after coming home from karate school, the mother raided the bathroom demanding to check the daughter’s school work.
As soon as she got out of the shower, the daughter was confronted by her mom. The time had already passed 9PM at this point, but she was told to do some more studying — after being fiercely scolded for “missing a couple pages” of her workbook.
When the daughter returned to her room, she was spotted murmuring, attempting to comfort herself.
Throughout the evening, the mother’s nagging continued. The daughter ended up getting extremely frustrated with herself and eventually bursting into tears, cornered within her room.
The situation worsened the next day. The daughter was put in charge of watching her siblings while the mother went outside to take care of business. When the mother returned though, rather than praising the 11-year-old for trying her best to keep things under control, she yelled at the daughter for skipping study time instead.
When the daughter broke down as her mother continued screaming in her face, Dr Oh also got emotional, feeling sorry for the miserable child.
Watching the daughter struggle with her mother, Dr. Oh claimed that the daughter may already be suffering mild depression. According to Dr. Oh, depression in children manifests in various manners. For children, when depressed, may have trouble with focusing, staying active, and, most importantly, communicating with their parents — all of which applied to the daughter’s behavior.
By the end of the episode, the mother listened to Dr. Oh’s advice and promised to try becoming a stronger support system for the daughter.
Many shared their own personal experiences with tiger parenting and how the “PTSD memories” from “surviving childhood from an overly-strict family did so much more harm than good.”
