There is an epidemic sweeping our nation. Children are becoming increasingly wimpy. What’s the cause of this travesty? The answer is overparenting.

We all know those moms. The ones who shower their children with compliments and seem to be oblivious to the world outside of their child. They pour over every parenting book, list Dr. Phil as one of their heroes, and assume their kid is better than everyone else’s.

The issue today is that every parent out there seems to be that parent. Kids lose miserably in a soccer game? Give them a trophy anyway. They throw a tantrum? Buy them a toy. And God forbid they keep score at the tee ball games. That would imply there is healthy competition.

This rash of overprotective, over-involved parenting has infected parents that have kids between the ages of 2 and 11. The side effects include spending ridiculous amounts of money on parenting books and organic food.  But that isn’t even the worst of it.

The most significant product of any kind of parenting is the child, and, in this case, the child is suffering. With the everything-is-fair and everyone-is-equal attitude comes the mindset that there is no competition at all in life.

But it isn’t a far jump between a meaningless tee ball game and applying for a job. If these kids are raised to be entitled brats who think that they deserve a trophy for everything they do, they won’t be very successful in a competitive workplace as adults.

Health textbooks don’t even  use the word “confidence” anymore because it’s too aggressive. “Self esteem” is far easier on the ears because it focuses on the individual instead of the ultra-competitive outside world.

But what’s wrong with confidence?  And why are total screw-ups still being rewarded for doing nothing right? Because kids must be happy individuals who are driven by self-prescribed morals and values.

Healthy competition and strong values set by authority figures are what create kids who are talented, self-sufficient, and tough.

Your kid might cry and threaten to quit pee wee football if they lose, but that’s OK.

It’s not the end of the world if your kid isn’t a winner once in his life. In fact, it’s good for kids to lose because it could motivate them to be better. Plus, don’t we learn more from failure than success?

Wimps with good self esteem are ultimately useless, so this over-parenting needs to end soon, or else we may be dealing with a generation of feel-good, all-is-fair wusses with little chance of surviving in the real world.