Scantee commenting in the modern parenting thread:
My sense is that the parenting insanity of the current moment is mostly attributable upper-middle class parents' anxiety about their children's futures in our winner-take-all society. That anxiety fuels an (unconscious, I think) desire on the part of parents' to provide the very best in every realm so that their children will have a leg up compared to all of the other upper middle class children whose parents couldn't or didn't make the optimal choice. We see this crop up in all of the parenting wars about the "best" way to raise kids. Breastfeed/bottle feed. Stay-at-home/work. Attachment parenting/traditional parenting. Lots of activities/more unscheduled time. Public school/private school. And on and on. I think there is this sense that if we just make the right decisions and give our kids these just-so-perfect lives then they won't be at risk for falling down the economic ladder towards a lifetime of struggle.
To me, none of these decisions is all that important. There is no way to game the system, choose the exact right life, and ensure your kids will have struggle-free lives 20 to 30 years from now. What really matters is what has always mattered: being there for them, supporting and guiding them, helping them develop the emotional and intellectual tools to adapt and thrive in whatever environment they find themselves in as adults.