I am the mother of 5 children ages 2 to 16 and am always seeking ways to keep my family running smoothly and calmly (it rarely happens, but I do try!). Nancy Gibbs, in a recent Time article titled “The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting” discusses how hovering “helicopter” parents, with the best of intentions of keeping their children safe and successful, are not allowing those children to develop their own resourcefulness or ability to cope with roadblocks or failure. The article discusses several tools to combat this “overprotectiveness” – one in particular stood out.

Kim John Payne, author of Simplicity Parenting, focuses on lightening the cultural pressures that weigh down families. He and his coaches will go into your home, toss out your kids' junk, sort out their schedule, and turn off the electronics with the aim of relieving stress. But any parent can do it just as well. "We need to quit bombarding them with choices way before their ability to handle them," Payne says. The average child has 150 toys. "When you cut the toys and clothes back ... the kids really like it." Having too many choices is distracting and can build stress. Eliminate the stress, build breaks of calm into their schedule so they can actually enjoy the toys, and you end up with happier, calmer children.

Makes a lot of sense – and is applicable to my work as well. Sure, you can build an online educational experience that is full of the latest bells and whistles, but often, throwing too much at a user results in a unsatisfied customer. There can be too many things to click and experience, and for many, that becomes overwhelming and they don’t learn the content – they end up focusing on manipulating the mouse or the screen. Keeping the courseware simple, streamlining the educational content (while keeping the actual content the focus of the user experience), and building in natural breaks for the student makes for a happy customer.