The term overparenting has been in mainstream use for the last decade or so, but has as yet no significant coverage in printed dictionaries. It is formed from a combination of over- a productive prefix meaning ‘too much’ (compare overeat, overestimate, overpopulated etc) and the gerund form of verb parent meaning ‘act as mother or father’. Whilst gerund parenting is much more common than verb parent, verb overparent seems to pop up more readily, occurring in both transitive and intransitive use.