I should know more Bloomfield "Tiger" Moms, but I don't; I do know something else, though.

Living in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan with school age kids you would think I would know plenty of -- to borrow Amy Chua's term -- "Tiger mothers."

But I don't.

I can't name a single one. Even in my head.

And, heck, I have a kid who is a pretty serious violinist.

 "Tiger" mom, of course, refers to a strict female mode of parenting that demands exceptional achievement in academics, music -- everything! Tigering involves, too, a strict limitation on traditional 20th century American sins: TV, sleepovers, junk food, etc.

The word has come to be associated with Asian Americans in part because of Chua and her book The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.

I started thinking about Tiger Moms I might know because Chua and her husband are promoting a new book -- Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America -- by featuring the book's provocative and kitschy (if perverse) return to early 20th century theories of race and ethnicity.http://hnn.us/article/154434

That is, Chua argues  certain cultural groups -- Jewish, Indian, Chinese, Iranian, Lebanese-American, Nigerian, Cuban exiles, and Mormons to be specific -- have superior traits that allow their children to succeed.

Pity the poor English who have had such little success -- but for God's sake don't tell the Scots/Irish unless you want your head handed to you!

And .... please ..... don't tell the many, many African-American moms who -- quite simply -- keep many of the largest institutions in SE Michigan functioning everyday while going to school themselves, sitting on church committees, voting, caring for families.

And, most of all, don't tell my own poor, aging, retired DPS teacher Tiger Mother who only says, vaguely, "I think we come from someplace south of Poland -- Galaxy? [Galatia] -- we were poor, peasants, kind of farmers, probably petty criminals. Who cares?"

The racial publishing provocation already has done its work, outraging the left and delighting parts of the right that seem to think skirting the edges of racism (ala Charles Murray) is somehow fine if you call such borderline racism "just not being PC."

All this is not to say Bloomfield Moms aren't competitive when it comes to their kids or that they don't work to help them succeed (or exceed). Far from it. I am sure at least one teacher or administrator would simply like a "parent-free" day.

It is just to say that Chua and the whole Tiger mom thing don't describe what I see or feel on a daily basis.

The deep desire to help children Chua wants to discuss manifests itself -- in my experience -- not in the aggressive, competitive metaphors Chua and her publishers' adore, but in a rather quiet, collective sense that bonds in cooperation rather than divides in competition.

Tiger, smiger, burning bright...

Now don't start calling me sweet.

To be sure, many Moms just plain don't like each other (to say the least) for this or that reason. Rivalries can be intense. Politics can separate many (on my side of the fence things can be, well, lonely....).

But the preponderance of parents I know have a profound respect that the other parent is doing their level best for their child -- whatever other differences there may be. For most moms, at least, this respect extends across race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and -- sometimes -- even social class.

Indeed, this collective understanding of the desire to raise children well very often may be the only link, the only tie, in our increasingly divided society.

That it is sometimes the only link should not, however,  minimize its power or significance.

To feel the daily labor of mothers -- even in an affluent place like Bloomfield where people really don't sit around eating grapes all day -- working, striving, watching, cajoling, forcing, worrying.....well, it is quite remarkable. When a male enters into that "mom" world -- say to coach a young kids' sports team -- you feel it instantly. It isn't aggressive. But it is powerful.

Underlying that energy is a linking force that makes a Tiger look like a little bitty kitty cat, one that needs to be shooed away because of the kids at the play date has an allergy.

One tampers with that kind of force at great risk, I think.

There is, in short, something much fiercer and overwhelming than a Tiger that -- when stirred -- over matches any other kind of social or political energy out there.

As a smart and experienced friend keeps telling me, "you won't get the moms involved in your school funding and organization debates until the house is literally on fire!"

My rejoinder: "Perhaps. Maybe. But when they do get involved, we all will win, and win big."