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But the predominance of incompetent parents fits in with the liberal distrust of families, especially the married, two-parent traditional family and the belief that caring for and educating children is primarily the job of the state.

I disagree with your interpretation.

All of the dysfunctional family situations described in the body of your post are OUTSIDE of the traditional family norm.

The traditional family norm has parents who provide for their children financially but do not sacrifice their kids for the sake of an even greater amount of money. The traditional family norm has a mother (or nowadays even a father) that is cooking the family dinner and not traveling around with her boyfriend. The traditional family norm has parents who eat the family dinner with their kids and are not so wrapped up in their jobs that they do not even notice that their kids are not eating at all.

If anything, the examples you gave in the body of your post are a longing for the days when Ward and June Cleaver were seen as the middle class American norm.

Face it. America is filled with bad parents and "parents" have absolutely nothing to do with "Family". Even the cockroach that you sprayed Raid on last week has "parents".

The examples you cite are a longing for "Family". .... The way most middle class "Families" used to be.

I watched a lot of Leave it to Beaver re-runs in the 1960's and I never heard the lines:

"Well, Beaver, I know it's true you haven't seen your mother for months because she is travelling around with her boyfriend, but that does not mean that June is a bad mother."

"Ward! I need to leave. Grand Rounds start in 30 minutes. Could you look at the Beaver before you leave for work? He may have lost 20 pounds since the last time I ever noticed him."

The examples you cite are a longing for "Family". .... The way most middle class "Families" used to be.

I think the answer is very simple. Just as news stories don't report, "Hey everything went well at Dianna's house today!", books must contain some kind of problem to be solved. Otherwise, who cares?

I have an almost 12 year old son and he's starting to read some of these books. Who would write about his life? He has married parents who look after his physical needs and help solve problems if need be. His problems are minor (some kid wouldn't throw a ball to him in gym class the other day) and if a major one comes up, we're here to help him deal and get the problem solved. That makes it 10 pages, instead of 100.

There is no story in, "My brother died 3 years ago and we're all ok." It's only a story if "my brother died and my parents freaked out and now I have to deal with them and the world by myself".