Helicopter Parenting on Shine

Parenting in overdrive: One parent's "help" has her facing jail time

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We've all heard stories of parents gone overboard when it comes to doing for their kids. Maybe we even could be accused of taking the helicopter up a few times to hover when hovering time should long be over. Say, maybe we ran forgotten permission slips and saxophones on band day into school for…

Crabmommy: Summer camp...for parents!

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In lieu of the usual Million Dollar Mommy inventions that I test-drive on this blog, I've got a slightly different idea this month. Inspired by two recent articles, here, and here, I foresee great wads of cash to be made by someone in the summer camp business. Apparently so many parents, coast to coast, are going ballisto with grief when their kiddos go to camp, to the point where camps need to contend with parental separation anxiety as an occupational hazard. But it doesn't have to be a hazard; it can be a cash-cow! Seriously, someone crafty surely stands to profit this new trend of parents experiencing seasonal "kid-sickness." For example, here's a letter I'm working on to welcome parents to my imaginary summer camp...a camp for parents of soon-to-be summer campers.

Crabmommy interviews the author of "Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting"

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As many of you know, I've been quite taken by this recently published book, Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting. So I interviewed the author, Hara Estroff Marano (who is also the editor-at-large of Psychology Today), about her thoughts on child-and teen-rearing gone wrong. Her book is not for the faint of heart, as it cites some scary stats and heavily critiques the hyper-vigilant, uber-protective and mega-involved parenting phenomenon we see in much of American middle class culture and which many of us participate in (yes, mea culpa too!). but whether you're for or against Marano's message, it makes for juicy reading...

Crabmommy: Beware of hothouse parenting!

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I'm lying on a bench at the playground. From the corner of my eye I see my daughter gesticulating at some kid. And he's gesticulating back. And they're looking tense. And one of them is climbing UP the slide! My body stiffens. UP the slide! If ever there's a playground no-no for me that's it. Because just think of all the things that can go wrong, the kids that can get hurt, the bad manners... And so on and so forth. But I'm not budging. Do I seem like I'm lazy? Actually, what I'm doing takes work. I am in fact trying very hard to resist a powerful urge to march over to the kids, observe, mediate, modify, and otherwise interfere with the business of child's play.