A Nation of Wimps

by Hara Estroff Marano

There is a mental health crisis on college campuses these days, with alarming numbers of students engaging in self-destructive behaviors like binge drinking and cutting or disconnecting through depression. This is the first book to connect the dots between overparenting and the social crisis of the young. Psychology expert Hara Marano reveals how parental overinvolvement hinders a child's development socially, emotionally, and neurologically. Hothouse parenting has hit the mainstream--with disastrous effects. Parents are going to ludicrous lengths to take the lumps and bumps out of life for their children, but the net effect of parental hyperconcern and scrutiny is to make kids more fragile. Children become overreactive to stress because they were never free to discover what makes them happy in the first place. When the real world isn't the discomfort-free zone kids are accustomed to, they become subject to anxiety disorders or worse.--From publisher description.