If instilled early, these skills also help them to avoid the college-prep freak-out that traumatizes so many American families.

WSJ: Amy Chua: Tiger Mom's Long-Distance Cub

Except for feeling wiped out, I was back to sounding authoritative and in control, even tilting my head and smirking sheepishly as if to say, You'll forgive me for that little freak-out I just had.

CNN: Robin Meade talks anxiety and her road to self-confidence

Glanville, who will be hawking the paperback version of his book, The Game From Where I Stand at the Feb. 12 convention, became a Strat-O-Matic freak in the mid-70s, when he was barely out of his toddler years.

FORBES: Documentary Film to Mark Stat-O-Matic's 50th

At sites like Kicktraq.com, your Kickstarter fate is plotted out in real time, complete with nerve-wracking trendlines you can use to freak out over how awful your friends are, how nobody understands your genius, and how little access you really have to rich, famous benefactors.

FORBES: How Not To Fail At Kickstarter

The Streisand that emerges is an odd control freak, a damaged, needy and out-of-touch woman and yet very human.

NPR: Michael Urie Superb In Charming 'Buyer & Cellar'

Almost everything we freak out about is somewhere in the 1-2 range of dashed expectations.

FORBES: The Best Strategy for Reducing Stress

And their middle-aged, middle class children will also freak out if you cut their benefits.

WSJ: The Evanescence of Majorities

TDS-1 payloads include instruments to track ships and monitor the sea surface for freak waves, and even a self-destruct "sail" that will pull the spacecraft out of the sky at the end of its mission.

BBC: Plan to 'Catapult' UK space tech