This paper analyses qualitative interviews conducted with Norwegian middle-class parents. It explores how a particular type of intimacy--an "enriching intimacy"--is produced as part of everyday parent-child interactions and considers the notion of the social self that spurs middle-class parents to seek this very type of intimacy with their child. By so doing it adds to the growing field of research on middle-class parents' child-rearing strategies and the role these strategies play in the "resourcing" of middle-class children. The relevance of the dimension of intimacy for studies on the parental effect on children's school achievement is discussed. (Contains 3 notes.)