He was very proud of himself for not crying. "I am getting tougher, dad." Well, well, well... Maybe we find a way, I didn't encourage him to become "tougher" at all. But I have always minimized his problems with stories of what it was like for me. "I think you'll survive."
I am conflicted on whether it's better or worse to have a helicopter mom. I think that it would be definitely bad if I were over-bearing as a father, but I don't do that. Wanna play sports, cool. Conflict with your sister or neighborhood kids, figure it out. etc.