I do not buy into the idea of a parent being friends with their kids. You're meant to raise the child not to be their friends. That doesn't mean there shouldn't be room for your child to confide in you or have the freedom to express themselves with you. It just means there should be boundaries, let them know what's acceptable and what's not unlike their friend who would nudge them on no matter how bad it may be.
In the case of the story above, the parents chose to be friends rather than raise that girl from all indications. Everything that she was allowed to do under their roof shouldn't have been allowed.
Errrmmmm!! Let me explain it like this. The problem why many children are like that 10yrs old girl, is because too many parents think the only way to bring up a child is to be very strict. The consequence then is that the child often revolts by doing the very things the parents don't approve of. For instance,as a strict parent, shout at a child not to turn on the T. V, then go out, I believe you can guess what will happen. However, if the child believes that what you've advised is born out of Love, even if an angel comes to tell them otherwise, they'll never do otherwise. In sum, there are more than one way of teaching a child how something is to be done, one way is to through friendship. Have you not observed that in our typical Nigerian homes "Daddy is coming" is an announcement that everyone should behave, in other words, they should be appear in a way pleasing to their father but when he goes out they become their real selves. In fact, this is one primary reason why that girl's parents didn't know her. The other reason is that they were almost never around; they thought that just paying expensive school fees and giving her all she wants was what parenting was about.