I have always likened welfare to staking a tree. If a newly planted tree stays staked too long the trunk will not strenghten, it needs to be blown around to thicken itself. You can actually poison a tree with kindness.
Old Testament law prohibits the boiling of of kid goat in its mother's milk.
I always read it to mean not to boil (make angry) a child in it's mother milk (of human kindness)
Mother's are good at nurturing, but sometimes they can smother with too much love and drive a kid away.