| "Overindulging children is giving them too much of what
looks good, too soon, too long. It is giving them things or
experiences that are not appropriate for their age or their
interests and talents. It is the process of giving things to
children to meet the adult's needs, not the child's.
Overindulgence is giving a disproportionate amount of family
resources to one or more children in a way that appears to
meet the children's needs but does not, so children
experience scarcity in the midst of plenty. Overindulgence
is doing or having so much of something that it does active
harm, or at least prevents a person from developing and
deprives that person of achieving his or her full potential.
Overindulgence is a form of child neglect. It hinders
children from performing their needed developmental tasks,
and from learning necessary life lessons" (Clarke, Dawson &
Bredehoft, 2004, How Much is Enough? p. xvii).
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