Katie Allison Granju, author of Attachment Parenting, has an article on Babble.com about the dangers of overparenting.

Granju describes her current parenting, post-baby, as "benign neglect":

These days, I let my youngest kid enjoy his growing collection of pocket knives, and I expect my children to ride their scooters out of my eyesight in our urban neighborhood. And I frequently tell my children that since I already completed elementary school, and have no intention of repeating the work, they will need to do their homework without me hovering nearby.

What are some of us doing wrong according to Granju:

We're losing sleep over why little Jasper isn't yet out of diapers....We're not-so-secretly frantic over why little Ella from playgroup can already tie her shoes when our own five-year-old Ruby can't yet do the same.

A concrete example of overparenting according to Granju; a first-time mother worrying about her baby learning how to use a spoon:

As the very cute baby played with her food, I noticed she was managing to get quite a bit of her mashed peas into her rosebud mouth with her small spoon.

"Wow, she's really getting the hang of that spoon," I commented with a smile.

"Yes," her mother replied, "I've been working really hard with her on it all week. It's kept me pretty busy."

Working really hard on teaching her to use a spoon? All week? Kept her pretty busy?

Ok, so why is Granju so cool and so many of us so stressed out?