overparent

English

Etymology

over- +‎ parent

Verb

overparent (third-person singular simple present overparents, present participle overparenting, simple past and past participle overparented)

1. To provide an excessive amount of parental attention and protection to one's children.
   • 2011, John Duffy, The Available Parent:

     I think we have a tendency today to overparent, micromanage, and underappreciate our adolescents.

   • 2011, Kevin Leman, It's Your Kid, Not a Gerbil, page 36:

     When you overparent, you weaken your child's self-image, suffocating her so that your child comes to believe, I guess I don't have what it takes to get by without Dad's and Mom's help.

   • 2016, Shakta Khalsa, The Yoga Way to Radiance:

     Both restrictive and indulgent parents can either underparent or overparent.

Noun

overparent (plural overparents)

1. A person or entity in a position of greater authority than a parent who takes on some aspect of the parental role or authority.
   • 1956, Journal of the History of Ideas - Volume 17, page 222:

     Slum children will be provided the assurance of this " overparent " as a guarantee against the underfed, vermin-infested children found in the London schools inspected at the outset of the century.

   • 1978, William Reynolds, The American father, page 210:

     If Father is the typical male underparent, as he generally is, it is not that he is a failure, except by overparent standards.

   • 1987, Thomas J. Burke, Man and Mind: A Christian Theory of Personality, page 52:

     In order to cushion the blow of this disillusionment they ascribe the power and perfection they once believed a parent had to an overparent, a divine being.

   • 2015, Edith Abbott, John Sorensen, A Sister's Memories:

     Is it conceivable that American mothers and fathers will tamely submit to turning over their sons and daughters to Miss Grace Abbott as an over-parent?

2. The role of the state in caring for and nurturing its citizens.
   • 1907, The Independent - Volume 62, page 76:

     To quote directly, not from his article in THE INDEPENDENT but from one published in the New York Herald on November 4th: “Socialism says boldly the State is the overparent, the outer-parent.

   • 1909, Proceedings of the Annual Congress of Correction, page 84:

     The principle as to adult criminals, though new in application is not new as a principle. It is a power of the State technically known as parens patriae—the overparent as it were— dealing considerately and helpfully with certain of its citizens as its wards to be cared for, aided, assisted, helped, etc.

   • 1912, The Progressive Woman 2:

     “Only the law of self-preservation will force the state, against the opposition of the mere makers of money, to become the overparent of all its people." writes Judge Ben B. Lindsey in the Newer Justice for January.

   • 1995, Telos, page 35:

     Like Dewey's "renascent liberalism," in 1911 L. T. Hobhouse's "constructive liberalism" prescribed that the state be an "overparent":