"While we Brits slumped, hung-over, on benches with coffee and Sunday papers, US mothers were getting down and dirty in the sandpit."

"'Good job!' they cried at each misshapen mud pie." Janice Turner does not like American-style alpha-momism.

Lisa Belkin responds with the comforting thought of generational change:

I predict the ascendancy of the Slacker parent over the next few years. Alpha parenting is not only tiring, it is can backfire, raising what some call the T-Ball generation, where everyone swings until they get a hit, everyone gets a trophy, and no one learns what it means to be disappointed. (Gen Y knows the risks well; they are that generation.) The economy will also help to tamp down the Alpha Moms in the near future (a speck of a silver lining).

Quick, start teaching your kids to compete and get ahead! Sounds like the new alpha, not a slacking off to beta.