Hyperparenting is over?

I hope so, we do worry too much about the kids and rely too much on "experts." (Ann Hulbert, btw, writes a very good column on these issues for Slate, and wrote a very good book that we used in "Philosophy of Childhood" called Raising America.) But Lisa Belkin's conclusion is still sobering.

...we have replaced the experts who told us what a good parent worries about with experts who tell us that a good parent doesn’t worry so much. We may even see parents stop aiming to prove how perfect they are and start trying to prove how nonchalant they are. But worry is worry. The search to keep from messing up goes on.

For a few more years, anyway. The power of a parent to screw a kid up is daunting, the capacity of a kid to resist the best nurture is discouraging. But what would you be if you didn't try? You've got to try. (Not talking cheeseburgers here, Lyle.) "Parenting" is still a verb.