'Eagle Dad' denies extreme parenting methods

A father living in Wuhan, Hubei Province, has caused quite the uproar in Chinese society by taking with what many people consider to be a devilish approach to training his young son. The father himself admitted his parenting method to be "strict," but not "cruel," the Beijing Times reported.

Wang Shaoyan, dubbed the "Eagle Dad" by many, has made his four-year-old son Wang Dingsen get into the habit of running three kilometers a day and taking regular cold baths. His self-proclaimed "progressive" and "scientific" approach was revealed after his son, now a kindergarten student, finished an 18-kilometer fast walk with seemingly little effort and no breaks on November 7, an accomplishment which sparked public controversy.

In an interview with the newspaper, Wang said that he started to train his son to run when the boy was only one year and three months old. In a "progressive" way, he made the boy run up to three kilometers every day. "I encouraged him and sometimes put some pressure on him. In the beginning, he wasn't able to make it in one go, so I allowed him to switch to fast walking as a kind of mid-way break. Now he does not need any breaks any more," he said.

The father explained how he forced his son to take his first cold bath during that same period. "The child was susceptible to cold and fever in his first year. But we didn't take him to the hospital during the first three days of his illness. We let his body's natural resistance fight the bug. In addition, we did not put many clothes on him. When he got to the age of one year and three months, I thought he had built up enough resistance in his body and started to try cold baths on him," he said. He first used water of 33 to 36 degree Celsius, then kept lowering the water temperature over the next couple of trials and finally switched to cold water, he said, noting it's never been "icy water." He admitted his son cried the first time he was put in cold water, but added that his way of doing this was "scientific". He said that he had always encouraged his son in order to boost his confidence and ability.

When asked whether he had previously consulted any experts about his approach, Wang said that he has never done that, but that he did do a lot of research by himself. He said that the goal was to improve his son's health and held the child seldom gets sick nowadays.

Wang insisted his parenting method was not cruel or extreme. "The approach that I use to train my child is progressive and a way of tempering his willpower. It shouldn't be considered cruel. The word 'cruel' signifies you force the child to do something he doesn't want to do. I don't do that. It is just that very few people out there use my method, which makes it seem relatively strict in comparison," he said.

Yet at the same time, Wang said that he had turned his ideas into his own actions, which were in turn imposed on the child. "I take flexible measures when interacting with the child [to persuade him]. This is more practicable," he said.

Cao Jianmin, a professor at the Beijing Sport University said that children at the age of four are still developing their immune system and are not suitable for excessive physical exercise. They can take proper amount of flexibility training and physical exercises, which would do them good. If the exercises are too demanding, they will harm the children's physical development, the professor said.