In response to friends and family who occassionally chided my husband and me about our parenting style, I would often say, “there’s no such thing as being overprotective.”  Sometimes I followed up with, “he depends on us for his safety and health and whole life and I prefer this to the alternative (uncaring, clueless, absent father, resentful mother, etc)?  Can you tell I was passionate about this?  Well now that we’ve ventured into the toddler years, I need to add on to my original quote. “There’s no such thing as being overprotective…with an infant.”  Past the crucial first year, my son now needs his freedom and independence, and we need to let him fall so he learns he can get right back up again and everything will be ok.  Here’s an interesting article I just read in Time Magazine about overparenting and the damage it can cause.

The antidote to this parenting style might be found in the “slow parenting” movement and this new book by Carl Honore Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting

Thoughts?