Maybe I should stop blogging about this kind of stuff. Because I get all caught up in my own words, and then I'm clearly not being clear. The stuff about rich parents was meant to be an aside, though I can see how it doesn't seem that way. My main point wasmeant to be that yes, there are some parents who are overparenting, but I'm guessing the majority have their overparenting moments, but on the whole are just going along with their parenting, like parents have done throughout parenting history, albeit in the context of a media-supercharged parenting moment. I.e. think about the real people you know, the actual honest-to-god parents you carpool with, chat with outside school, went to high school with. Not the ones you read about. Not the ones you cast the evil eye upon because their kids seem like brats in the moments you intersect at the park, in the grocery store, in the cafe (if you are of the echelon that goes to cafes). How many of those real people in your life do you think are overparenting? I know an awful lot of parents. They come in various degrees of obsessiveness. But true overparenting, as described in that article? I'd say three. And maybe a few others who grew out of it. Not a huge percentage. But then maybe I just choose to surround myself with reasonable people.
(If you don't know what I'm talking about, go on to the post below.)
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I think surrounding yourself with reasonable people is a good survival strategy. Maybe it's that I live in a 1950s-era suburb and spent several years teaching at night and hanging out with parents at the park, etc., with my small children that has led me to have a different interpretation of how many parents feel pressure to overparent? And my own insecurities as a parent (how my parents did it is definitely NOT an option, so where do I go from there)?
Whatever the reason, I always like hearing what you have to say, and I always learn from you.
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