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American parenting is under the microscope these days.

Helicopter parents — overprotective, always hovering, smothering their kids with control — are the new bad guys. Whatever happened, say critics, to just saying “do your homework” or “go play”?

The counter-movement goes by many names: “slow parenting”, “free-range parenting.” Give the kids some space. Let them learn and fall and stand again on their own. They’ll be stronger in the end.

It can be a tough balance. And it may be moving right now.

This hour, On Point: Finding the sweet spot — and the backlash against over-parenting.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from New York is Nancy Gibbs, editor-at-large at Time magazine and author of the current cover story, “The Case Against Over-Parenting: Why Mom and Dad Need to Cut the Strings.”

Carrie Contey, prenatal and perinatal psychologist and early parenting coach. She teaches classes on “slow family living.”

Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, a social historian, has written about parenthood, family, and children. She is co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers and author of “The Divorce Culture: Rethinking Our Commitment to Marriage and Family.”

Not dorks or dweebs — though she really doesn’t mind those terms if they mean studious, authentic, sincere.

In Marybeth Hicks’s parenting world, “geeks” stands for “genuine, enthusiastic, empowered kids.” She doesn’t mind if the acronym sounds cute. Just don’t call it cool.

Cool is killing our kids’ spirits, she says. Trapping them in an empty media-driven culture. Making them grow up too fast, too jaded … too cool.

This hour, On Point: Marybeth Hicks and “bringing up geeks.”

How are you raising your kids? Are you protecting their innocence? Their geek side? Or throwing them into the pool of what’s cool? Do we have to choose? Join the conversation and tell us what you think.

- Tom Ashbrook

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Guests:

Marybeth Hicks, family columnist for The Washington Times and author of “Bringing Up Geeks: How to Protect Your Kid’s Childhood in a Grow-Up-Too-Fast World.” (You can read an excerpt at the book’s website.)

Stefanie Ilgenfritz, deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal’s Personal Journal section. She writes for the section’s blog “The Juggle” about juggling work and family life.

By host Tom Ashbrook:

At 8 am, do you know where your three-year-old is? Your four-year-old? A big new movement wants to put them — all the nation’s tiny tots — in school. Universal pre-kindergarten, it’s called. And it’s catching on fast, in red states and blue. Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia, West Virginia — all leaders.

Now, the ‘08 presidential campaign has grabbed on to “universal pre-K.” Critics say it pulls tots out of homes and can “drill and kill” creative minds. Supporters say American kids, especially the poor, need more than day care.

This hour, On Point: No toddler left behind. The push for universal pre-K education.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

David Kirp, professor of public policy at the University of California-Berkeley and author of “The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics.”

Richard Lee Colvin, former education reporter for the Los Angeles Times, he’s now director of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at the Columbia University Teachers College.

Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, professor of child development, co-director of the National Center for Children and Families, and professor of pediatrics at Columbia University.

Douglas Besharov, social welfare policy scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy.