Also, just as a side note about my own take on the definition, I usually think of hothousing as being more about the parent's needs than the child's.
Giving foreign language lessons to a bored kid who then becomes more engaged isn't hothousing to me. That's solving an educational problem. Nor are afterschooling to keep a child challenged nor gap-filling to help a child make a smoother transition into a grade skip. That's just good parenting!
OTOH, forcing a child to take a foreign language he doesn't want so that the parent can use the child as some sort of status symbol, or out of some misguided attempt to not let the child "fall behind" (of what?) so that he can feel like a good parent? To me, those are hothousing situations.
I usually figure that if the kids are happy, they're almost certainly not hothoused. Anxious, stressed out kids who hate to learn but have to so Mom doesn't flip out are probably hothoused.
The world according to me...
But that's my take, FWIW.
