There are many challenges to parenting. Attempting to be firm, yet flexible; strong, but not intimidating; loving, but not over-sentimental, are only a few. Jing-mei's mother struggled with maintaining this balance, as do many parents. Jing-mei's mother's contrasting character traits, such as strictness, lovingness, and pride are evident in the story "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan.

Jing-mei's mother is quite strict. Her strictness is reflected in one night, she made Jing-mei, "look at a page in the Bible for three minutes and then report everything I [Jing-mei] could remember," (96). Since she wanted her child to become a prodigy, she was very strict and made Jing-mei perform outrageous tasks to take her to stardom such as making Jing-mei practice piano for two hours on a daily basis (98). This made Jing-mei feel overwhelmed at times, but she got through.

Jing-mei's mother was also very proud. During Jing-mei's piano recital, Jing-mei...