Oh, it's a lot more than skinned knees. Unfortunately.
It's about never allowing a growing child to have the experience of feeling competent and simultaneously-- autonomous. It's done with the best of intentions, of course-- with the aim of keeping your child happy and secure at all times. The trouble is that a child who has never been allowed to solve his/her own problems or tolerate discomfort tends to adopt the attitude that the reason is likely that they aren't capable of doing things for themselves, and that "unpleasant" means "something is horribly wrong"... and eventually it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for some of them that since Mom and Dad don't LET me operate independently, I must be incapable of doing so. Sends the message to the child that the parents don't trust them to be able to use good judgment-- about anything. Also, in related news-- minor problems are a Major System Failure, and call for... well, some kind of alert that The World Is ENDING Right Now, This Very Instant. Mom and Dad should step in, though, and fix things.
This kind of thing used to be termed "enmeshment," I think. Back when it was much more clearly recognized as being unhealthy. LOL.
