One who criticises son, getting less affectionate (7)
I believe the answer is:
scolder
'one who criticises son getting less affectionate' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'one who criticises son' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'son' could be 's' and 's' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'colder' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for scolder that I've seen is " lecturer".)