Now you've done it. :-)
I REALLY agree about the birthday part. I think there's a fine line between teaching your kids self-reliance, and neglecting them.
I'm pretty sure you've started what will be a first-class flame war!
LOL. We'll see if the obsessive parents find the post.
Yeah, there's a happy medium between this woman's apparent complete indifference to her children (if she's not just being hyperbolic for the sake of stirring the pot), and today's tendency for parents to live exclusively for their children's fulfilment. When you spend all your free time shuttling children to and from various structured activities, you've maybe gone too far in that direction. When children decide the menu for every meal, you've gone too far. When you feel the need to bring your children with you to every single social event, including those clearly intended for adults, like a "stag and doe" party, you've gone too far.
I suspect there have always been people who became parents but found that they really didn't like children or parenting. If you had the money you could contract out your child rearing to a nanny or governess, and many people sent their children away to boarding schools (particularly among the upper class of England, who have long put their own desires above that of their children. Decent adults have come from homes where there wasn't a lot of parental love. As I say, there must be happy medium between these extremes.