on incidental parenting and the maturity of children...

1.) Until this year, I carried Joseph upstairs to start his school days. I incidentally quit doing that and am now wondering whether that's a key contributor to his much greater maturity (esp. with school) this year. 

2.) We're now making Zach set his own alarm on weekdays. He's always liked being tucked in and waken up. We've (largely) enjoyed it too. But again, I think we may have hurt his maturity by "babying" him to start each day. 

Punchline: As parents, despite the best of loving intentions, what are we doing that blesses or semi-blesses or harms our children? 

Other anecdotes/ideas/thoughts?