A man was an avid gardner. One day he saw a small butterfly laying few eggs in one of the pots in his garden.

Since that day he looked at one of the eggs with ever growing curiosity and eagerness. The egg started to move and shake a little.

He was excited to see a new life coming up right in front of his eyes. He spent hours watching the egg now.

The egg started to expand and develop cracks.

A tiny head and antennae started to come out ever so slowly.

The man's excitement knew no bounds, he got his magnifying glass and sat to watch the life coming out.

He saw the struggle of the tender pupa and couldn't resist his urge to help.

He went and got a tender forcep to help the egg break, a nip here and a nip there to help the struggling life.

And Lo and Behold!

The pupa was out, the man was ecstatic. He waited now each day for the pupa to grow and fly about like a beautiful butterfly.

But Alas, that never happened. The larvae pupa had a oversized head and kept crawling along the pot for the full 4 weeks and died!

Depressed, the man went to his botanist friend and asked the reason. His friend told him the struggle to break free out of the egg helps the larvae to send blood to its wings and the head push helps the head to remain small so that the tender wings can support it through its four week life cycle.

In his eagerness to help, the man destroyed a beautiful life!

Struggles help all of us, that's why a wee bit of effort goes a long way to develop our  strength to face life's difficulties!

As parents, we sometimes go too far trying to help and protect our kids from life's harsh realities and disappointments.

We don't want our kids to struggle like we did.

But Harvard psychiatrist Dr Dan Kindlon says that overprotected children are more likely to struggle in relationships and with challenges.

We're sending our kids the message that they're not capable of helping themselves.

To quote clinical psychologist  Dr Wendy Mogel: " It is our job to prepare our children for the road and not prepare the road for the children."