Tiger moms, get off your hovering helicopters: while parents may have the best of intentions, their frantic efforts to shepherd their children to happiness and success are making kids anxious and depressed.

• Author: Cortes, Ivana
• Position: Psychology

YOUR SON FALLS on the playground, and you instantly swoop in to hug him and fuss about his scuffed knee. Your daughter has a fight with her best friend, and you quickly call the girl's mother to try to intercede. You check each child's homework every night so that you can find any mistakes before the teacher's red grading pen comes out and, any time a school project is underway, you can be found lurking in the art nook saying things like, "A purple sky, really?" or, "Wouldn't the glitter glue be a better choice than the silver spray paint?" (If, that is, you do not take over the project altogether.)

If any of these scenarios sound familiar, you are not alone. Overparenting quickly is becoming normal parenting. Yes, we moms (and dads) have the best of intentions: we want to protect our children from unnecessary pain, fear, failure, disappointment, and other unpleasantness, but we actually are doing our offspring a big disservice.

Today's kids are overbooked, overtested, overprotected, and, as a result, underbelieved in. When you try to control too much, you rob your children of valuable learning opportunities, including how to make decisions and, without these opportunities to find their own feet, children feel less confident and more anxious.

In fact, researchers are discovering a connection between children's stress and overparenting. In a Johns Hopkins University study, hyperparenting was more closely related to increased anxiety in children than the mental health of the parent or parental rejection. In turn, elevated anxiety (in children and adults) is linked to depression and behavioral issues. Even toddlers with moms who are too directive in play are more aggressive and more likely to throw toys. The opposite also is true: moms who are less intrusive tend to have happier children.

The negative consequences of overparenting are not limited to childhood, either. A recent series of investigations showed that, as adults, children who were overparented tend to have "lower self-efficacy and an exaggerated sense of entitlement." Furthermore, parents themselves "are likely to be less satisfied with family communication and connection." Even knowing these facts, though, many parents still have trouble backing off.

I admit that I am a recovering helicopter mom myself. I especially was overprotective and overinvolved when my son and daughter were smaller, but a trip to France and its playgrounds helped to cure me of that. There, I witnessed a...