And see, I always thought I detected a bit of "overlook the girl child" in Mr. Tam. I forget the episode, but it was one with the Tam children and Dad, and Dad effused about Simon's progress and completely didn't mention River's. With very little squinting at all I could say that, more than ignoring her, he seemed to be trying to detach from her, or maintain a distance that had always been there.
Daddy Tam also acted pretty shifty when he had to leave his party to bail Simon out of jail. The read I got on it was that the Tams had sold River down the--uh. Yeah, in order to purchase a clear path to success for the scion and heir.
The adult-ish River that we got to see aboard Serenity never talked about their parents. It was as if her only family, even before the academy, was Simon. Whereas Simon says, "We" when talking about how the family knew she was gifted. Maybe I'm reading a whole lot into it that wasn't there. But it sure was easy for me to do, if that wasn't the intent.
But then I've always been a suspicious sort.