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19 People Know the Struggle of Growing Up with Asian Parents

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Growing up, it didn't take long to realize that my parents aren't like most parents. I'm first generation Asian-American, specifically Filipino, and my parents did things a lot more differently everyone else's. They were extremely strict and overbearing, to say the least. They'd badger me to have the best grades, tried to turn me into a prodigy by enrolling me in all of the extracurricular activities (they refused to believe that prodigies are born not made), and barely letting me have a social life that was outside of the small Filipino community we were a part of.

Well, I didn't listen to most of what they had to say and they turned out to have a daughter with mediocre SAT scores that ended up wanting to pursue writing and the creative fields over engineering/medical school/being a lawyer. Literally, the only three occupations that were approved by my parents (or all Asian parents for that matter) were engineer, lawyer, or something in the medical field. There was no in between. My parents ended up with both of their kids pursuing writing. They've yet to fully accept this fact, too.

There are plenty of people out there that probably grew up with the same experiences. Asian parents are just different and they have a mentality that cannot be changed. It's kind of like, “You can't teach an old dog new tricks.” You won't be able to sway my dad's opinion on anything and can't get my mom to open up about anything emotional. At this point, you've just got to laugh about it and shrug your shoulders at their ways. What they don't know is that we've perfected the imitations of our parents while they're scolding us and it's f*cking hilarious. So, thanks for that mom and dad.

These 19 people know the struggle of growing up with Asian parents is SO real:

1.

My mother has on more than one occasion screamed “B IS FOR B*TCH!” (In Viet) And slapped me hard across the face, For getting a B+

2.

Filipino here. We were getting our eyes checked because we needed new prescriptions for new glasses. The ophthalmologist whipped out the colorblind test and my brother and I failed it horribly. My dad asked him what causes color blindness, he replied with genetics. Let me repeat that. My dad asked the doctor what causes colorblindness and the doctor told him that genetics is the reason. Right in front of the doctor, he started yelling at us for being colorblind and said we shouldn't have played so many video games. We were born colorblind, the doctor told him that, and he still got mad at us for being colorblind.

3.

My bro wanted to apply for engineering, so he filled up the forms for it. The letter was supposed to be posted through my dad's office. Dad knew about it, changed everything to medicine instead.

4.

My dad said this to me this morning, “You, you stop going out and worrying about finding yourself a girlfriend. Let me and your mother worry about that. We have a lot of friends with daughters. You focus on finishing your degree and making money.” I am Vietnamese and almost 30…

Written by Irvi Torremoro

Irvi Torremoro is an Austinite by way of Las Vegas. She's worked in various outlets in food & beverage and is now focused on writing, eating all the things, talking about Beyonce, and petting all the puppies. She runs flavorandbounty.com, a lifestyle blog about people in the service industry.