Peter -- as usual I am splitting a gut at your deft repartee!

A mollycoddle is one who has been mollycoddled, about which the American Heritage Usage Panel has the following offering:

pamper, indulge, humor, spoil, coddle, mollycoddle, baby These verbs all mean to cater excessively to someone or to his or her desires or feelings. To pamper is to gratify appetites, tastes, or desires: "He was pampering the poor girl's lust for singularity and self-glorification" (Charles Kingsley). Indulge suggests a kindly or excessive lenience in yielding especially to wishes or impulses better left unfulfilled: "You musn't think because I indulge you in some things that you can keep everyone waiting" (Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie 1900.) Humor implies compliance with or accommodation to another's mood or idiosyncrasies: "Human life is . . . but like a froward child, that must be played with and humored a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep" (William Temple). Spoil implies excessive indulgence that adversely affects the character, nature, or attitude: "He seems to be in no danger of being spoilt by good fortune" (George Gissing). Coddle and mollycoddle point to tender, overprotective care that often leads to weakening of character: "I would not coddle the child" (Samuel Johnson). Stop mollycoddling me; I'm a grown person. "...

Regards,

A