overparenting overburden

Reading “The child Trap”, I completely agree with what it has to say about issues pertaining to the modern child’s upbringing and parenting. The child today is over parented and forced into social and familial obligations. Every parent thinks and, I agree has a right to think that their child s the best. He is, but in his/ her own way. Their child might not be as bright as the other one or the neighbor’s child or his best friend. But parents today believe that their child has to be better than any other child. This leads to a syndrome mentioned “overparenting”. Parent’s spoil their kids, worry and fret unnecessarily and overprotect him. They overburden the child with tuition's and extra ‘extra’ curricular activities and other social camps and summer jobs just so that their child who get an A gets an A+ and gets into the best league universities et al. I have a friend who is in a similar situation. She has an elder sister who is doing extremely well and is in a brilliant university. She herself is also very smart, but in other fields. She is extremely athletic, talks well, cooks well and is smart. But she is not academically smart. She manages to get a B+ but her parents are very pushy. They keep taunting her. They put her up with four tuition teacher’s and put her into more extra classes and after school classes. I think this is unfair. The child does not need to get an A all through his life to be a successful person. Being successful is about being smart, laterally intelligent and the mind should work at the right place and time, which in her case, happens. I agree parents do this to help us make a successful future, but they should also understand that overburdening the child can lead to mental and emotional problems that are difficult to treat. They should encourage rather than force and leave the decision on the child after a point of time.