Hothousing has a negative connotation because in my mind, it is a very fine line near child abuse. There was a Law and Order episode a few years ago about gifted daughters that were hothoused in a basement. It was TV drama done up for effect but it was essentially Tiger Mom goes bananas.
I have met ONE hothouser. She was a part of our mom's club in our neighborhood. Every single day, she put her 8 month old in the high chair with flash cards for Babysigns. The only way that baby got lunch was to perform. He had to sign the sign on the card for a bite. She bragged about this all the time and didn't see anything wrong with making him work for his lunch. In fact, she encouraged others to come and see because he had close to 100 signs! Did that make him gifted? Who knows... but it certainly made him hungry.
I haven't met anyone (or read of anyone) here that I would describe as a true hothouser. Sure... we all probably push our kids here or there, even when we don't mean to or try to be child led. But there's no way my kid would EVER have learned to write if I hadn't shoved him a bit. He was completely unmotivated, had no reason to learn and didn't see any benefit other than getting me off of his back.
