It really wasn't, evident by the parents needing their kids to help them through certain-death scenarios at the end of the movie:
- Jake being physically drained from his fight with Quaritch and facing the prospect of drowning
- Neytiri being overcome with grief and rage and in a state of panic inside the capsized ship
My takeaway from the film was that as a parent you're never going to stop caring about your kids, or harping on them when they do idiotic stuff, but that they're going to grow up and they need to be trusted and relied on to do the right thing, or be useful, when it matters. The theme of usefulness is mentioned overtly right before the final act is set into motion.