Once, a man was walking through the park and saw a beautiful butterfly struggling to break out of his cocoon. Eager to help the new butterfly, he pulled out his pocket knife and sliced through the cocoon easily. To his surprise, instead of flying off, the butterfly fell to the ground unable to fly. Unbeknownst to the man, breaking out of the cocoon is a crucial part of the butterfly's development, strengthening its wings and giving it the confidence needed to fly. In attempt to help the butterfly he'd actually killed the animal instead.
A teacher once told me this story... I don't know how much of is true, let alone scientifically accurate, however experience and time have shown that in some cases helpfulness causes more harm than help. Specifically in sheltering people or giving people more than what they've earned. Every movie I've watched, there's a parent with some secret and in order to protect their child, they choose not to tell them. The entire plot revolves around the character discovering this secret in a haphazard way. Examples: The Little Mermaid II (Ariel's daughter is unaware of her mermaid heritage, runs away to sea, is tricked into stealing from her grandfather, and almost dooms Atlantica to Ursula's evil twin sister), The Mortal Instruments (Clary's mom never tells her that she's a shadow hunter who fights demons who will eventually find her and try to kill her, nor that she possesses an important item that in the wrong hands could lead to death and destruction, let alone who "the wrong hands" are), etc.
On TV it seems so obvious, yet people still do these things in real life. There's a really thin line between supporting and over-sheltering. Sometimes it's hard to know what actions to put with our good intentions, but it's important to think through situations. It's important to determine if swooping in to save the day will cripple the person we're saving in the long run. Unfortunately, sometimes it's better to pick a person up after they fall than to catch them.
