I read the article about tutoring, and it doesn't really sound all that different from what any academically minded parent would do with their kid: teach them things. Obviously, it's weirder than weird that the parents are paying someone else to do this, but the ideas and activities are not any more advanced than most middle class kids are expected to master.

Parenting has been made incredibly complex in the last 15 or 20 years, I opine, as a parent of some mid-20-somethings.

K. [and who, for the record, sprouted her bean seed in a dixie cup in kindergarten]