(Like most people who don't have children, I have an opinion on how they ought to be raised.)
This article about baby-raising in Scotland on Sunday makes mention of a nannying guru "whose technique involves avoiding eye contact while feeding and restricting physical contact to 10 minutes a day..."
If I had a baby who voluntarily avoided eye contact and resisted physical contact, that baby would be diagnosed as autistic.
It's like a psychological form of footbinding in which empathy is deliberately stunted.
Small egos must be "in" this year. Simply de rigeur in a dependant.