TWO interesting points on parenting this last week led to the same conclusions about how we treat the current generation.

One came from tennis coach Judy Murray – mother of tennis champs Andy and Jamie - who believes that British children are too “wrapped in cotton wool” and dependent on their smart phones to become sporting champions. She says she knows which of her charges will succeed by watching their parents, and that many do too much for their children. “We have to not be afraid to put them into situations where they have to get out of trouble and solve problems,” she stated.

The other point resulted from research carried out by the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow showing that the expected poor mental health associated with coming from a lower social class did not seem to apply to children who had been scouts or guides.

It also showed that adults with a scouting or guiding background found they were less likely to be anxious or depressed in later life. Now, like any research or any point of view, other factors may be important and this is not set in stone. However, implications drawn by simple commonsense suggest that if children are encouraged to be more resilient, solve their own problems and work in groups or teams, they fare better in the real world.

We all know that life is full of pitfalls and that, however much we try to avoid all of them, we are bound to be affected by some of them. Pitfalls help to form our character and turn us into more rounded adults, able to face life’s problems. When parents mollycoddle youngsters, often because their own lives have been tough and they want a better existence for their children and so over-protect them, they deny them the chance to work things out for themselves. Add to that the modern retreat into unreality via gadgets and games and you have an excellent formula for youngsters avoiding real-life difficulties and being unnaturally cosseted against what life might bring them. Sport, especially team sport, helps children to grown and develop, preferably without parents being very critical or pushy and setting them up to fail. Nature knows that the young of species always have to find their own way to some extent. It’s just not a lesson that we humans have learned very well.