Hiring Someone Else To Potty-Train Your Kids, Teach Them to Ride a Bike

Thursday, March 31st, 2005

This is what parenting is all about: Hiring Someone Else To Potty-Train Your Kids, Teach Them to Ride a Bike:

It has come to this: It is now possible to outsource most aspects of parenting.

The burgeoning industry of services aimed at harried parents, which began with the likes of birthday-party packages at gyms and pizza shops, has expanded to the point where you can now hire someone to assist with everything from potty-training your toddler to getting your teenage daughter to agree to a passably modest prom dress. ‘Fussy baby’ services in Chicago, Denver, Brooklyn and Oakland, Calif., help comfort shrieking babies. In the New York suburbs, an entrepreneur has built a flourishing business by taking over one of the most timeless parental rituals of all: For $60 an hour he teaches kids to ride a bike.

‘Childwork, as I would call it, is one of our economy’s growth industries, as affluent parents try to balance work and family, deal with ever intensifying anxieties, and give their kids a leg up in the race for success,’ says Steven Mintz, a historian at the University of Houston, who specializes in childhood.

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