A father's harsh parenting has aroused wide controversy after a video was circulated online showing his nearly-nude four-year-old son running in snow.
The boy, Duo Duo, was running with only a pair of pants and trainers to combat the morning temperature of minus 13 degrees Celsius in New York, where the family from the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing spent their Spring Festival holiday.
The boy is seen doing his "training" in this internet photo
The 44-year-old entrepreneur trained his son to run in the freezing weather for five minutes and do push-ups despite the boy's trembling and cries for a hug.
He uploaded the training footage online and dubbed it the "eagle dad" parenting approach, the Yangtze Evening News reported yesterday.
Young eagles learn to fly when their mothers expel and drop them from their nests on cliffs. They learn to survive through cruel tests, and the fierce parenting method is also suitable for kids, the father surnamed He said.
His unusual parenting philosophy has ignited discussion on the Internet, with some agreeing on the eagle way while others worried about the health of the little boy.
"You are torturing your child." "Why didn't you run with your son naked too? You are crazy!" "The child can't be spoiled but needs to be loved!" were some of the comments.
It was not the first time Duo Duo went through such militaristic training. To improve his health, He worked out a scheme to train his weak son, a premature baby with a series of complications.
He has arranged eight-hour daily excises for Duo Duo, including swimming, mountain climbing, bicycle riding and martial arts. He told the newspaper these schemes started after his son once went hiking with him for 14 days, with a daily walking distance more than 10 kilometers.
"Duo Duo stayed in the hospital for two months after he was born. But since then, he was in perfect health and never sent to hospitals," the proud father said.
Besides, his strict family education created a miracle, with the boy's IQ reaching a genius-level 218, enabling him to advance to primary school, the father claimed.
