ABSTRACT
Positive parenting is widely promoted as a universal, evidence-based approach, yet its class assumptions remain unexamined. I argue it is not a class-neutral developmental science but a culturally embedded practice tied to specific class positions. I propose Selective Cultivation, a framework distinguishing two layers of parenting competence: first-order practices (warm communication, emotion coaching, non-punitive discipline) and second-order meta-knowledge (how competitive and institutional fields actually operate). Reproduction operates not through unequal access to second-order information—which now circulates widely—but through its unequal conversion into embodied competence, governed by three barriers: recognition, reinforcement timing, and tacit practice. This logic explains why families enacting an identical concerted-cultivation style diverge (instrumental vs. authentic), and why the most intensive practitioners may raise children least equipped for structural inequality. I close with implications for family theory and the class politics of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).