We're not talking about perfection here either; if someone decides to apply a different teaching style, or is okay with being relaxed and letting their kids take a slow approach to education, that's totally fine! I'm talking about parents utterly failing to prepare their children for college and for adult life, and I've watched that happen dozens of times. It inflicts tremendous emotional and mental harm on the kids and can destroy a decade or more of their life as they struggle to make up for it.