Define "tough." Politicians and top tier academics, for example, are often very ruthless people, bred among wealth and generational security. They've never worked a 12h shift in a mine, but if you want to observe utterly pitiless mentalities or people that take being "judgmental" to levels you may have never suspected might exist, spend time among them. If they'll have you.
The parental love by default dictates us to create a good life for our children, which may result in too much comfort.
Do tough times indeed create stronger people? If so, how could that be incorporated into the gentleness of the modern pedagogy?