Overparenting has been a hot topic lately. On my blog and elsewhere. It’s a serious problem that is crippling an entire generation. Overparenting is not good parenting, but it is often disguised as such.

Julia Lythcott-Haims, Dean of Freshman at Stanford University, wrote a wonderful book on this subject I highly recommend: How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success. As she has observed entering freshman, she has realized there is an epidemic of overparenting today. As a result, young adults enter college unable to cope with problems or stress, unable to interact with adults and overall are unprepared for adult life ahead.

If you want to have strong, successful, emotionally healthy kids, the worst thing you can do for them is be overinvolved in their lives, protecting them from every obstacle they may face. Are you overparenting your child? Here are five signs that you might be:

Your child calls you with every problem he encounters.

It is normal for your five-year-old to need you to help him with his problems. It is not normal, nor is it OK, for your 19-year-old to be calling you from college every day whenever…