tiger mothers

Noun

tiger mother (plural tiger mothers)

1. A woman who is fiercely protective of one or more people in her care.
   • […] I spent all last night on my knees, beseeching the Great Physician to hear me and heal my boy. […] but the instinct of the tiger-mother is tearing my heart to pieces […].1907, Elizabeth Fremantle, Comrades Two, William Heinemann, page 237

   Synonyms:

   mama bear, mama grizzly

2. A mother who drives her child or children very hard to succeed in school or in extracurricular studies, such as learning a musical instrument.
   • I would like to see Oxford and Cambridge turned into graduate universities entirely devoted to research, which at a stroke would cool the ardour of the "tiger mothers" of Holland Park and Hampstead determined to set their three-year-olds on the path to Oxbridge, whatever the human cost.2005 May 9, J. G. Ballard, “Now parliament is just another hypermarket”, in New Statesman