Cover illustration for The Washington Post (Local Living Section) about how to trust your instincts to free yourself from overparenting.

July 16, 2020 issue

The following is an edited excerpt from parenting coach and columnist Meghan Leahy’s upcoming book, “Parenting Outside the Lines: Forget the Rules, Tap into Your Wisdom and Connect with Your Child.”

“Leaving that grocery cart was one of the best parenting decisions I had ever made, because, of course, the cart was just the cart, but leaving it in the middle of the aisle has come to mean so much more to me than that one simple act. It was my first lesson in how detrimental my overparenting was…”