The Problem of Coddling?

Is overnurturing the problem with people today? Is it softness in general, and a result, as is often suggested, of “participation trophies”?

The attitude of the parent(s) doing the overnurturing or undernurturing is the key. A child knows when the parent is insecure and then either is controlling and violates boundaries, or takes the route of neglect or harshness, also the result of insecurity on the part of the parent. In either case the parent isn’t trusting in God, but worships other things, which leads to the wrong attitudes and actions. When the parent doesn’t trust God, the child is being trained to not trust God, which leads to the child not living in obedience to God when he or she gets older. That’s why when a parent or other authority figure reacts to softness with cruel harshness the latter is just as destructive. There’s a failure of the parent to reflect accurately on the humanity of that child (as made in the image of God) and all it entails, too - that they’re worthy of respect, able and responsible to handle their own lives, and so on.

Adding too...the nurture of the parent who isn’t trusting in God, as much as that parent might give to the child and be nurturing, ends up not being truly nurturing, because the parent is doing it for themselves, selfishly, to prove to people they’re a good parent, to impress others, to find their security in the acceptance of themselves by the child rather than Christ, etc.