Tiger mother parenting? Not in this Filipina's memoir

A former Vancouverite's memoirpraising her Filipina mom's parenting style has hit number one on Amazon's Parenting and Adult-Child Relationships category.

But, no, this isnt Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother Part Two.

"She would turn the lights off if we studied after midnight,"said Marie Claire Lim Moore, of her mother Lenore Lim.

"Very different from the stereotypical Asian upbringing."

Moores book, Dont Forget the Soap: And Other Reminders from my Fabulous Filipina Mother, recounts how her mother wanted her to become a well-rounded person who balanced work and leisure.

It's all about balance and community

These days, Moore has two children of her own and lives in Singapore. She is a top executive for Citis Asian banking operations, studied at Yale and regularly speaks about career-family balance for women.

But in the 1980s she was just another kid in Vancouver.

Her mother had emigrated from the Philippines to Canada. Lenore Lim's passion and education were in fine arts, but she paid the bills by becoming an early childhood educator.

Lim was part of a tight-knit Filipino community in those days and stressed to her children the importance of giving back even on their own birthdays.

"What my mother would do is wed celebrate with friends and family but shed put down a donation in our name to a school in the Philippines," Moore said.

"As kids we didnt get it. All the other kids got presents.

"Its something we saw early on. On your birthday we learned it wasnt always about us. Its these small things that made a huge difference.

Passing on Grandma's values

When Moore was 12 years old, her mother moved the family to New York when she took a job at the UN International School.

Moore blossomed and eventually studied at Yale, before starting a career in finance.

Her mother blossomed, too. Lim is now pursuing her passion for art as a printmaker. Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is one of her clients.

Moore wants her children to remember their grandmothers three values: balance, gratitude and giving back, especially living in wealthy Singapore.

"We were talking about taking them to the Philippines, to the small province where my father comes from where they have a lot less,"Moore said.

"I want them to appreciate the smaller things. Their experience will be completely different from mine."