Is depression becoming inevitable?

It doesn't matter what you are doing as a parent, if you read enough studies you learn that you are parenting wrong. But it is easy to accept that you are wrong as a parent: You have, after all, a constant walking/talking reminder in your life that you are an unfair, mean person and that you are crushing all the joy out of life because you won't let someone play on his iPad and instead keep insisting that he brush his teeth.

You know: Normal parenthood stuff.

But then you read something really scary. This will usually drop into your world after you've had a particularly good streak of bragging how smart your child is. And there it is: Your child is probably going to suffer from depression at some point. And it might be your fault.

Whether it is from lack of play in their free or school time, micromanaged lives or focusing on failure, our children have too much adult involvement in their lives. What's the answer? We need to butt out a little and take a step back to let our children take the lead. Much easier said than done, but hey, we've tried lots of other crazier things with our children over the years. Why not let them be children?

I'm all for staving off depression and taking a step back, but before I do: He still needs to brush his teeth.

How much free time does your child get in a day? Tell me in the comments.