“Don’t handicap your children by making their lives easy.” – Robert A. Heinlein
Malcolm Gladwell discusses “desired difficulties”, and the learning difficulties that made David Boies and Steve Cohen so effective, because they were operating from a disadvantage and so developed superior skills in other areas as coping mechanisms for their shortfalls.
My son calls his autism his superpower, because he has to work harder than his friends in certain areas but it also gives him some advantages that others may not perceive.
Goethe declared: too many parents make life hard for their children by trying too zealously to make it easy for them. If you never have to do hard things, you won’t develop strength (muscular or mental).
Snowplow parents that clear the way are setting their children up for disappointment, failure, and ultimately resentment because they take away the very things that make their children ready to live life by trying to give it to them. Too easy is more dangerous than too risky.