Oversheltering our kids?

I don't have any children yet, but hopefully that will change in the near future. So this article was very interesting to me. It's about the various institutional controls in place so kids don't feel left out -- having to give Valentines or birthday invites to the whole class, for example, or not keeping score during games.

Look, I'm extremely sensitive. I consider it a gift and a curse. A gift in that it helps me be creative and kind to others. A curse in that life knocks me around a bit more than it does the average person. At the same time, the knocks and bumps of life don't go away just because you feel them a bit more acutely than your neighbor. I'm not saying three-year-olds need to stop being coddled so much and get a damn job like the rest of us -- obviously, there are different rules for kids than adults. But they've got to start feeling the bullshit of life sometime. And there's a fine line as to when and how.

What do you think? I welcome and encourage comments on this.