Saturday, November 21, 2009

Overparenting

Interesting article here about the backlash against overparenting (and the hilarious irony of people taking classes in how not to overthink parenting). I know a lot of the examples they give must be unrepresentative, used to make the article more dramatic, but it's still a little scary. (Apparently the advice columnist Dear Abby suggests taking a photo of your kid before they leave for school every morning, so that if they get abducted you'll be able to show the police what they were wearing that day...wtf?) And baby kneepads? ... People are insane.

I mean, everybody has ideas before they become a parent, of what kind of parent they want to be. And I'm sure 90% of people end up doing things they never thought they'd do, for better or worse. I have a fairly clear idea of what kind of a parent I don't want to be, and I really really don't want to be overprotective or clingy. But it's going to mean fighting against some pretty ingrained aspects of my personality -- I'm a worrier -- and I hope I'm strong enough to do that.

2 comments:

Pregtacular said...

You'll be fine because you are already conscious of not going overboard. The real problem will be the other parents. Trust me, they are the craziest ones of all!

Betty said...

Ah, other parents.

That'll be fun. *cough*