> wonder if the micro-management of parenting by popular culture can itself be seen as a form of over-parenting at a societal level. Can you elaborate on this

> wonder if the micro-management of parenting by popular culture can itself be seen as a form of over-parenting at a societal level. Can you elaborate on this? We are social animals so I guess this is behaviour that might be quite old. I'm going to go on a limb to conjecture that coddled kids aren't as productive, resilient or resourceful as their headstrong counterparts. Could it be possible in old times that "the society" needed resourceful and headstrong young people over those who can hardly wipe their own arse without their mother, especially in unstable political groupings (from clans to villages to cities to provinces to nation states)? But the kind of helicoptering in the article is basically coddling a child to oblivion regardless of age which hampers the development of said child's potential. No one said anything about perfection. No one ever has. That's the unreasonable and impossible standard an emotionally unstable parent(s) may strive for thereby overcompensating on some imaginary 'specialness' in their children.