I wouldn't call her nutty - I am sure she is sane and well intentioned - but I did cringe throughout reading that article. What I didn't say was, "Wow if only my parents pushed an micromanaged me like that I would be successful and happy."
Good intentions can't justify abuse, and I don't know of a better for a pattern of calling one's child "garbage":
Once when I was young—maybe more than once—when I was extremely disrespectful
to my mother, my father angrily called me "garbage" in our native Hokkien dialect.
It worked really well.